By PETER GREEN
Well, Hazel Manning came to save her embattled son, Brian Manning, the Member of Parliament for San Fernando East.
After a fall out between Manning and the then Constituency Chairman, Patricia Alexis, the executive of the constituency resigned forcing an election.
The date of October 15 was set. But then it was brought forward to October 12.
Hazel, widow of the late Prime Minister Patrick Manning, put herself forward as a candidate for Chairman. She came up against Nigel Wayne Couttier, PNM Councillor for Mon Repos/Navet in the San Fernando City Corporation and Leslie Lynch.
The elections were held from 6 pm on Monday at the Pleasantville Community Centre.
When the votes were counted, Hazel was badly defeated. She got 29 votes. Couttier prevailed with 50, and Lynch, three.
The last San Fernando East Executive, led by Patricia Alexis, resigned in August following a clash between Alexis and MP Manning. This followed complaint and counter-complaint, respectively, against each other, which were made to the PNM’s leadership in June. A party-appointed team investigated this.
But following subsequent public statements by Manning and the Alexis-led executive, the leadership met with the executive, which resigned afterwards. The leadership also reprimanded Brian Manning.
The PNM ordered internal elections of all San Fernando East units, peaking with the election of a new executive.
The San Fernando East constituency was the last to complete its internal elections before the PNM’s November convention at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.
BACCHANAL IN THE CAMP
Prior to the internal elections in San Fernando East Constituency, bacchanal erupted with court action.
A High Court Judge declined to stop an election of the San Fernando East Women’s League after a long-standing party member brought legal action over being allegedly excluded from the poll.
Justice Christopher Sieuchand declined to grant an injunction being sought by 81-year-old Bernadette Shirley Blenman, of Ste Madeleine, as her application came up for hearing on October 2, hours before the election was due to take place at the Vistabella Regional Complex.
In the application, Blenman, through her attorneys Matthew Gayle and Richard Rojas, of New City Chambers, were either seeking to have her participate in the election or to stop it (the election) pending the determination of her substantive case over her eligibility to vote.
Blenman, who has been a member of the party since the 1960s, claimed that several weeks ago a party group she founded was no longer recognized by the party. She claimed that although she and other members of the now-defunct group were advised to join another party group, they were unable to do so.
She claimed that the election was necessary following a public spat between MP Brian Manning and constituency chairperson Patricia Alexis, which resulted in the resignation of the entire executive of the constituency.
She claimed that when the party’s secretariat issued the notice for the constituency’s Women’s League annual general meeting, it indicated that only members of party groups and those in good financial standing were allowed to participate.
“In my years with the constituency and the party, there has never been a uniformed approach to implementing the rule that one must be a member of a Party Group. The rule has always been applied in an ad hoc manner. I am cognisant of the effect of the rule because I am now the victim of it,” Blenman said in her court filings.
She claimed that she filed the litigation as the requirement prevented several other female members, including those from her former party group, from participating. She claimed Manning made representations on their behalf but to no avail.
“I will add that it is my fervent belief that should this election continue without the financial female members of the party and constituency being allowed to vote, this will leave an indelible stain on the party,” she said.
