Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley has regained his post as political leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM) in last Sunday’s internal party elections.
Rowley’s team won a landslide victory against his challenger former PNM senator Penelope “Penny” Beckles’ team. Penny contested the post of political leader of the party.
A few months ago, Rowley axed Penny as she is popularly called from the Senate.
There were 14 executive posts up for grab.
The PNM leader’s team polled just over 19,000 votes from a membership of 81,000.
The election was conducted all 41 voting constituencies.
In 1996, Dr. Rowley challenged former Prime Minister Patrick Manning for leadership of the PNM and lost but he triumphed this time around.
At the time when he fought Manning it was a delegate system, which Rowley changed to a one-man vote system in December 2012.
Penny’s team claimed that the voting process was flawed since several names of PNM members were left out from the voters’ list.
The former senator had been complaining for weeks before the poll about the voters’ list saying that the party was not ready for the one-man voting.
In an interview with reporters after his team was declared victorious, Rowley, (wearing a symbolic sailor hat) said; “I am the captain of the (PNM) ship.”
He admitted there were some hiccups during the election as it was the first time the election was conducted under a new system.
The PNM leader said it is now on to next year’s general election.
