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Ten am­bas­sadors ap­point­ed by the pre­vi­ous Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion have re­ceived let­ters from the new Gov­ern­ment re­vok­ing their ap­point­ments, with six al­ready re­turn­ing home and an­oth­er ex­pect­ed last evening.

The For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­istry con­firmed the re­calls yes­ter­day and de­fend­ed its han­dling of the process amid crit­i­cism from at least one diplo­mat who ex­pressed con­cerns over the tran­si­tion.

In an email re­sponse, the min­istry said ex­ist­ing pro­to­cols re­quire all mis­sion heads to of­fer their res­ig­na­tions fol­low­ing a change in ad­min­is­tra­tion. It said in ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 135 of the Con­sti­tu­tion, the Prime Min­is­ter ad­vised the Pres­i­dent of the re­vo­ca­tion of mis­sion head ap­point­ments fol­low­ing the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, which re­sult­ed in a new Cab­i­net ap­point­ed on May 3.