One gone, one more to go for Penny
The plan is working fine for Stuart Young to return as political leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM).
Deep-pocket financiers and strategists who are hoping for Young to once more become PNM boss see the party’s humiliating loss in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) polls as a critical stepping stone.
They now expect that Penelope Beckles-Robinson will lead the PNM into defeat in the local government polls, due next year.
Two successive electoral losses will render Ms. Beckles-Robinson a political lameduck.
Sunshine Today had previously reported that Young’s inner circle was banking on Ms. Beckles-Robinson losing the THA and LG elections.
A double defeat, according to Young’s insiders, would power the way for a challenge to Ms. Beckles-Robinson’s stuttering leadership.
The Opposition party is due to hold leadership election in 2028, two years before the next general election.
A victory for Young in the party’s internal poll will give him mere months to mobilise support to challenge the United National Congress (UNC) for office.
Young’s loyalists see the whitewashing of PNM in the Tobago polls as the first litmus test of Ms. Beckles-Robinson’s tortured stewardship.
They anticipate her becoming a short-stay leader.
She was named Opposition Leader and elected PNM boss after the PNM crashed in the April 28 general election.
Former Prime Minister and PNM leader Dr. Keith Rowley had angled for Young to become Leader of the Opposition.
Young, who is 50 and has vaulting political ambitions, is backed by wealthy and influential urban entrepreneurs.
He also has the active support of a longstanding PNM tactician, whose businesses received multi-million-dollar contracts under the PNM administration.
Young has been keeping politically busy, issuing statements and granting media interviews without deference to Ms. Beckles-Robinson’s leadership.
He is also functional in his Port of Spain North-St. Anns West constituency, where he is regularly photographed with working class supporters.
Informed sources said Young’s political handlers have advised him to stay in the public’s eye and to regularly comment on national issues, including the all-important energy sector.
His team operatives are confident that Ms. Beckles-Robinson will continue to falter, leading to greater disfavour with PNM supporters.
The leader’s hectic campaigning did not help the party in the THA election, and resulted in only the second time there was a whitewash in a poll in the sister isle.
Ms. Beckles-Robinson is seen as having a wooden personality, with a laidback political style, lacking dynamism and charisma.
The defeat in the general and THA elections have led to commentary that the PNM is facing an existential crisis.
Rowley, whose recent public utterances have been met with ridicule and criticism, remains a diehard Young trooper.
But he is unlikely to become a frontliner of behalf of the aspirant leader.
A proposed pre-election “Conversation with Tobago” by Rowley was scrapped as a result of a paltry turnout.
The THA result is also a powerful rebuff against Rowley, who was born on the island and boasts of his roots.
-KEN ALI
