00:00Internal elections one week and a special convention the next.
00:04Public relations officer for the PNM, Faris al-Rawi, on Friday announced that following
00:09its special general council meeting, it was decided the party's internal elections for
00:15all 16 officers, including political leader, will take place in about five weeks' time.
00:21The taking of the ballot for the election of all of the officers will be executed at
00:27each of the 41 constituencies on Sunday, June 22nd, 2025.
00:33So to explain that, we do the ballot the weekend before the convention.
00:39The result of the ballot is then taken to the convention and at the convention the election
00:44is perfected.
00:45On Friday, the PNM General Council summoned a special convention to be held on Sunday, June
00:5129th for the purpose of election of all the officers, at which date the term of existence
00:56office holders within the party executive will come to an end.
01:01The party's elections are based on the one-man, one-vote system.
01:04Al-Rawi noted that a major focus of the General Council's discussions was the separation of
01:10roles between having had Dr. Keith Rowley as political leader, while Stuart Young served
01:16as Prime Minister, an arrangement he described as an experiment.
01:21We felt, and our discussions included, that the offices of political leader really ought
01:27to coincide with other offices, in this case specifically the leader of the opposition.
01:33The country, of course, saw the first-in-time experiment with a political leader being someone
01:40different from a prime minister, and I think it's fair to say that we were judged properly
01:45by the vote on April 20th as to what that experiment ended in.
01:52Most in council agreed.
01:53He added that the leader of the opposition should also hold the position of political leader.
01:59The anomaly is the fact that the leader of the opposition does not sit in leadership
02:03of the party, and that is, therefore, something that we're very concerned to put right as quickly
02:10as possible.
02:12The leader of the opposition declared that she would be seeking the post of political leader,
02:18and all of the speakers this evening certainly recommended and gave their support for that
02:24position.
02:26Cindy Raguba, Chika Singh, TV6 News.
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