Penny cries foul; opponents trying to sabotage her meetings

Pennelope 'Penny' Beckles-Robinson is accusing some members of her own party of trying to sabotage her campaign for the People's National Movement's (PNM) internal election on May 18.

 

She is the only candidate so far who is challenging Keith Rowley for the leadership of the party and has promised to deal with issues and ideas to take the party forward.

 

But she is running into what she calls sabotage, citing an incident where there was a false public announcement that one of her cottage meetings was cancelled. The meeting was scheduled for Thursday night at the Guaico Government Primary School.

  She has also slammed her opponents for spreading false rumours that she has held private talks with certain members of the People's Partnership government.

With respect to the cottage meeting, Robinson-Beckles said a car fitted with a mike went through the community an hour before the meeting was scheduled to start announcing that it was cancelled.
That did not stop the meeting at which Beckles-Robinson told supporters she will be elected political leader of the PNM "if it is God’s will." And she promised to "endure until the end...We went ahead with the meeting because there were people from Matura and Tamana who came. 

 

"We had over 100 people in attendance so we had a good turn out despite the mike announcement before,” Beckles-Robinson told the Express newspaper.  

"The meeting went ahead and we addressed issues such as flooding and health, which Sangre Grande Hospital is well known for. Their service has always been great but in recent times, things can be improved,” she said.
She touched on an issue that has been the PNM's Achilles Heel - rural development and pledged to focus on that. "Rural communities are my responsibility," she said. "I will help them."

 

So far in the campaign Beckles-Robinson has also drawn a line between her priorities and those of the incumbent. For example, while the PNM under Keith Rowley rejects the idea of a new constitution, Beckles-Robinson is in favour of constitutional reform and has even suggested that she might support some form of proportional representation.