PNM Political leader candidate, Karen Nunez Tesheira is taking the party to court seeking a postponement in the elections citing a host of issues lack of fairness, transparency, openness, accountability, rationality and good faith.
In a letter by lawyer and former PNM Legal Affairs Minister, Peter Taylor, Mrs Nunez-Teshiera, along with Ken Butcher and Victor Phillip who are contesting the posts of Chairman and Election Officer respectively, pointed to the decision to change the Internal Elections from one day to span three days claiming that it ran counter to the party’s constitution.
The letter claims that the Chairman of the PNM’s Elections Supervisory Committee, Mr. Anthony Roberts, advanced no reasons or justification as to why the decision was taken to do so neither did he cite any constitutional provision which allowed for the decision.
The trio accuse the Committee of acting in bad faith with the elections less than 2 weeks away noting that the Final Membership List of Electors has also not been settled or distributed.
They added that Telephone Numbers and Email Addresses have not been included on the Preliminary List of Registered Voters while the members of Dr Rowley’s slate have access to the information.
The trio claim no guidelines for the Elections have been provided, leaving candidates unaware of the number of Polling Stations, their locations and whether Polling Cards were mailed out to members;
They also contend that the decision for Ballot boxes to be counted at a secret location without any candidates present should be reversed as it is irrational and inconsistent with the principles of transparency, openness, accountability and fairness.
The letter calls for the PNM Internal Elections be postponed for a period of Twenty-One (21) days from so as to allow the party to enact any policy changes ordered by the court as a result of this matter.
The matter is set to be heard by Justice Devindra Rampersad.
An attempt to reach PNM’s General Secretary, Foster Cummings, who was named as a defendant in the matter and PRO, Laurel Lezama Lee Sing, for comment proved futile.
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