Op­po­si­tion Leader and PNM Po­lit­i­cal Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is re­mem­ber­ing for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning on the ninth an­niver­sary of his death.

In a Face­book post on Wednes­day, Beck­les de­scribed Man­ning as a “vi­sion­ary leader” and re­flect­ed on the role he played in shap­ing her po­lit­i­cal jour­ney.

“Mr. Man­ning wel­comed me in­to pol­i­tics some thir­ty years ago,” she wrote. “He be­lieved in me. He gave me the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve as a coun­cil­lor in the Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion in 1992. He first ap­point­ed me as an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor in 1995.”