PNM faces heat from Diego Martin youth

The opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) is facing criticism from members of the Diego Martin Central Youth League, which staged a protest at the party's Balisier House headquarters Saturday while the party's general council was holding a meeting.

The group complained about what it said is the party’s inaction in dealing with the fact that members of the league prevented several of its executive members from voting during constituency elections this month.

The Newsday newspaper quoted the youth league’s chairman, Mikhail Garcia, as saying that what happened was a breach of democracy in the party. "They are seeing us as young people and not respected members of the party,” Garcia told the paper. He accused several members of the constituency’s executive of “trying to railroad them for their personal benefits.”

Garcia added that the PNM is not dealing with the issue. He said the group has written "a lot of letters to the hierarchy of the party and, unfortunately, we have not gotten any response."

Diego Martin Central MP Dr Amery Browne is supporting the youth and has so far failed to get PNM political leader Dr Keith Rowley to intervene. "I support these young people. We cannot speak out on injustice only in some places,” Browne told Newsday.

PNM vice-chairman Camille Robinson-Regis told Newsday the matter is an internal party matter. "It is really a matter that has to be solved by the Diego Martin Central constituency executive,” she said.

Robinson-Regis also denied that the party has failed to take a definitive position on the issue. "That is not entirely so," she told Newsday, adding that two unsuccessful attempts were made for the youth league to hold elections.

"We then asked the Diego Martin constituency to deal with those matters because it really is a matter internal to the Diego Martin Central constituency," she said. She denied that the PNM operates in a high-handed manner. 

“What we can do, and this is what we did, was listen to both sides of the issue and the decision was taken for Diego Martin Central to resolve the issue internally,” she added.

The general council addressed a non-party issue as well during their meeting Saturday. They passed a resolution calling on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to remove National Security Minister Jack Warner from the Cabinet.

Robinson-Regis said the resolution had unanimously support. He colleague, Fitzgerald Hinds, said the controversies surrounding Warner is “a threat to the democracy” of Trinidad and Tobago.