Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

As Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les ap­proach­es her first year in of­fice on Mon­day, PNM vice chair­man Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly has come to her de­fence, ac­cus­ing a group of “PNM in­di­vid­u­als” of wag­ing a cam­paign against Beck­les.

Beck­les as­sumed lead­er­ship of the PNM on June 29, 2025, fol­low­ing the par­ty’s de­feat to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) in the April gen­er­al elec­tion.

Gads­by-Dol­ly’s de­fence was aired over the week­end in so­cial me­dia con­ver­sa­tions, af­ter a woman crit­i­cised Beck­les for be­ing pho­tographed with UNC Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo in Fyz­abad dur­ing last Fri­day’s Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions. Beck­les’ late fa­ther, Li­onel Beck­les, had been a promi­nent trade union­ist with the Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union. While at­tend­ing the Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions, Beck­les vis­it­ed Tan­coo, who is Fyz­abad’s MP.

Af­ter the fe­male ac­tivist crit­i­cised Beck­les’ cour­tesy call on Tan­coo, Gads­by-Dol­ly stat­ed: “On Mon­day June 29, it will be one year since the Ho­n­ourable Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son was elect­ed un­op­posed as Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the PNM. Since that time, a group of ‘PNM in­di­vid­u­als’ have en­gaged in an all-out so­cial and tra­di­tion­al me­dia war - not against the UNC - but against the Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the PNM, pub­licly mak­ing deroga­to­ry and dis­re­spect­ful com­ments that are in­im­i­cal to the progress of the par­ty in this crit­i­cal time.

“They seem to be­lieve they can cause a shift in po­lit­i­cal and/or Op­po­si­tion lead­er­ship in the PNM out­side of the con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­vi­sions, and they are work­ing night and day to achieve this.”

Gads­by-Dol­ly added: “Such per­sons are sore­ly mis­guid­ed, as is their cam­paign, and such ac­tions are to be con­demned. This par­ty is 70 years and has stood the test of time of ad­her­ence to its Con­sti­tu­tion. At­tempts to de­vi­ate from the Con­sti­tu­tion and its prin­ci­ples have proven to do us much harm, rather than good.

“Through the ef­forts of those who have and con­tin­ue to place the PNM above them­selves and their nar­row in­ter­ests, this par­ty has pre­vailed through good and bad times. The PNM is big­ger than the am­bi­tions of any per­son or group and must be pro­tect­ed, not dragged in­to dis­re­pute by the ac­tions of a few. Unit­ed we stand, di­vid­ed we fall; let us take a stand to­day to build rather than tear down. Great is the PNM!”

Gads­by-Dol­ly did not re­ply to Guardian Me­dia’s ques­tions yes­ter­day on the post, the sit­u­a­tion in the par­ty and her fur­ther views on the lead­er­ship, par­ty and some mem­bers’ is­sues.

For­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford, who has been crit­i­cal of Beck­les’ modus operan­di, had no im­me­di­ate com­ment on the par­ty un­der Beck­les to date. How­ev­er, he said he would be writ­ing a piece ahead of the PNM’s one-year an­niver­sary un­der her lead­er­ship.

A num­ber of PNM MPs and Sen­a­tors al­so ral­lied around Beck­les.

“The work con­tin­ues on T&T’s be­half!” one MP, who did not want to be named, added.