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Sources say no mo­tion was brought to re­strict for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment chair­man Stu­art Young from speak­ing with­out the bless­ing of par­ty lead­er­ship, de­spite ru­mours cir­cu­lat­ing be­fore the par­ty’s gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing on Wednes­day.

At the meet­ing, gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings raised what one source de­scribed as an un­ex­pect­ed idea. He sug­gest­ed that the de­ci­sion to call a gen­er­al elec­tion should not rest with one per­son, the prime min­is­ter, but should in­volve some con­sen­sus with­in the par­ty to en­sure con­stituen­cy groups are pre­pared for the cam­paign.

With the PNM in op­po­si­tion at both the cen­tral gov­ern­ment and To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly lev­els, it will be years be­fore the par­ty is in any po­si­tion to call an elec­tion. Some sources who were present felt Cum­mings’ com­ment may have been aimed at for­mer prime min­is­ter Young, who at­tend­ed the meet­ing. The idea was not tabled as a mo­tion and was not put to a vote.