Pennelope Beckles-Robinson picked apart Dr Keith Rowley’s “track record” of three election victories in one year, declaring that the People’s National Movement (PNM) has been losing its base under his stewardship. “If you look at our base it has not been growing. They want to tell you that they win in Tobago, they win in St Joseph and they win the local (government elections),” Beckles-Robinson declared, as she addressed a cottage meeting at Bronx basketball court, Embacadere, San Fernando, on Thursday night.
The PNM political leader hopeful told the modest gathering that there are those in the party arguing that with the Government’s present state the PNM was sure to win the election in 2015. However, she said the party still has a lot of work to do. She said her opponents (Rowley’s slate) have been boasting of election victories but, “They do not talk about the Chaguanas (by-election) because we lose everything, we lose in every polling division, so they don’t talk about that.”
Beckles-Robinson pointed out that when one examined the St Joseph by-election, PNM candidate Terrence Deyalsingh got 2,000 votes less votes than former PNM MP Kennedy Swaratsingh. She said some people will say a win is a win, “but not when you lose 2,000 votes.” The former senator urged supporters to use careful consideration when casting their ballots on May 18 in the PNM internal elections.
“They said this is the worst government out and yet still how much more corporations the PNM got? How much more did they get?” she asked. She also said the PNM Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections victory was possible because of the work done by the Orville London and the THA. “The PNM constitution gave them (London and his team) autonomy to deal with their own election as they saw fit.”
Earlier during a walkabout, Beckles-Robinson was warmly welcomed by Embacadere residents who wished her success in the internal elections and gave her their endorsement for political leader. She was accompanied by some of the candidates on her Team Penny slate, including Laventille West MP NiLeung Hypolite, who is contesting the general secretary post.
Beckles-Robinson also used the opportunity to respond to her detractors, including Camille Robinson-Regis who has called on voters to reject the idea of another female prime minister. She said this position not only strikes her, but all PNM women who have been a crucial party of the party.
“They are championing that another woman should not lead the country. Who would have ever thought the women in the PNM would be saying that when the women have been the backbone of the PNM, now I wonder how they would feel,” she lamented. Beckles-Robinson said she will not be daunted by any detractors nor will she respond to them. “I am about making a difference. I am about building a nation.”