Karen Nunez-Tesheira, one of three people challenging Dr. Keith Rowley for leadership of the PNM in the party’s upcoming internal election, has once more expressed “grave concern” over the three day voting process, alleging it compromises with the transparency required for democracy. 

In a letter penned on her behalf by her attorney, Nunez-Tesheira, who served as Finance Minister under the late Patrick Manning, asked the PNM’s General Council to justify what she referred to as the “nine day anomaly” that was the voting process.

She was referring to the fact that ballots will be cast on three days- November 26th, November 27th and December 4th. 

“While the Party’s Constitution is silent, it has always been the staple of practice and time-honoured custom and convention of the Party to complete the Elections process in One Day. That is, voting is completed and the votes are counted and tabulated in the presence of appointed Representatives in One Day. We are sure that the reasonable, respectable, responsible and right-thinking mind would agree that the better of the two options to ensure fair Internal Elections and to minimize, if not, eliminate any risk, possibility or probability of tampering with the Ballots would be the established practice of conducting and completing the Internal Elections in One Day with appointed Representatives present at all material stages of the process,” the letter stated.

It added: “At the end of a day of voting, what will be happening with the Ballot Boxes? How will they be handled?” 

Her letter comes even after PNM leader Dr. Keith Rowley, during a political meeting last Wednesday night, dismissed concerns about the three-day voting process.

“When you go to the polls, either early in the week or at the convention, every single member who wished to participate in choosing the leader of this party has a vote…But use it wisely. When you hear other characters talking about democracy in the PNM, you tell them to go put that where the monkey put the nuts because they never want to acknowledge progress or anything good, or share what we did (that was) positive. They always have something negative, even if it sounds foolish,” he said.