Deepening internal friction within the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) San Fernando East constituency has prompted a veteran figure from one of the region’s most storied political families to enter the race for the local party chairmanship, aiming to calm rising tensions and mend fractured party cohesion.
Hazel Manning, a former government minister and widow of iconic former prime minister Patrick Manning, made her candidacy official in a written statement released Saturday. The announcement was shared publicly on Facebook by her son Brian Manning, the current incumbent Member of Parliament for the San Fernando East constituency. In her address, Hazel Manning framed her decision as a response to widespread calls from party members, noting that after countless outreach efforts from constituents, she had agreed to put her name forward for the chairman role in the interest of restoring unity to the deeply divided constituency.
Her entry into the race comes against a backdrop of escalating open conflict that erupted after Brian Manning publicly aired formal concerns about the performance and conduct of the constituency’s current executive and its sitting chair, Patricia Alexis. The public dispute drew an immediate rebuke from national PNM chairman Marvin Gonzales, who warned party members against airing internal disagreements in public, while confirming that the leadership was reviewing the concerns Brian Manning had raised. Despite this official call for discretion, the constituency executive moved forward with a public rebuttal, deepening the rift within the local party branch.
In her statement, Hazel Manning emphasized that she had personally watched tensions climb and documented the growing unease among San Fernando East residents over the conduct, public reputation, and operations of some current local party representatives. She described the constituency as far more than a standard legislative seat, noting that it holds deep symbolic meaning not only for the Manning family’s decades-long political legacy but also for the PNM as a whole.
“For decades I watched my husband, and now my son Brian Manning, walk every street, take note of every issue and make sacrifices to try to reach and represent every constituent,” she wrote, calling for cross-faction collaboration to move the constituency forward. “Let us work together to repair, recover and rebuild.”
Hazel Manning brings decades of partisan and governmental experience to the race. Records from the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago confirm she first entered national office as a PNM government senator in 2002, before going on to serve as Minister of Education from 2002 to 2007, and later as Minister of Local Government starting that same year. Her late husband Patrick Manning, one of the PNM’s most prominent leaders, held the San Fernando East seat for 44 years, from 1971 through 2015, and served two non-consecutive terms as the country’s prime minister between 1991 and 2010. Brian Manning has held the family constituency seat since he won it for the PNM in the 2020 general election.
Following the announcement, local media outlet *Trinidad Express* reached out to key stakeholders for additional context on the development. Brian Manning declined to offer further comment beyond confirming that his mother would release additional details in the coming days. Requests for comment from PNM political leader Pennelope Beckles and national chairman Marvin Gonzales went unanswered as of press time.