Former PNM senator Joel Primus. Photo: Internet Source

Primus, who joined the PNM in 1999 and served twice in the Senate, said his decision was the result of years of reflection and was not a direct response to the ongoing controversy involving San Fernando East MP Brian Manning and the constituency’s former executive.

However, he acknowledged that the San Fernando East dispute was an example of the wider problems he believes now plague the party.

“If you were to think of that matter, that matter is one of the examples of all of the different things that I have assessed for a long time that demonstrates that the organisation is not where it ought to be,” Primus told Guardian Media.

His resignation comes as the PNM grapples with internal tensions, including the bitter San Fernando East fallout involving Manning and former constituency chairman Patricia Alexis, which has spilt into the public domain despite calls from the party’s leadership for restraint.

Primus stressed, however, that there was no single incident that prompted his departure.

“It’s an assessment over an extended period,” he said, explaining that he had been reflecting on “how far we’ve moved away from some of the founding tenets and principles.”

Primus said values such as “interracial harmony, solidarity and unity and serving the bigger picture and the common good” were among those he no longer saw reflected in the party.

“It seems as if each cycle of politics gets worse and we are further and further away from the original intent that Dr Eric Williams had set about for the organisation,” he said.

In his resignation letter to PNM General Secretary Foster Cummings, Primus said he joined the party in 1999 and was formally inducted at Balisier House in January 2000 because he believed in its founding philosophy, aims and policies.

During his time in the PNM, Primus served at the constituency, General Council and Central Executive levels. He was also chairman of the National Youth League, a senator and the party’s candidate for Fyzabad in the 2010 general election.

Primus served in the Upper House in 2004 and again from 2008 to 2010.

Although he stepped away from frontline politics in 2012, Primus said he maintained his membership, paid his dues and continued supporting aspects of the party behind the scenes.

However, he said continued association with the PNM was now inconsistent with his personal values and could negatively affect his character and reputation.

“The values that made me feel that there is commonality to be part of the PNM is not the same values I feel I see today,” he said.

In his letter, Primus said his assessment included the party’s recent conduct, its performance while in government, its loss of office and the wider state of the organisation.

He concluded that the present-day PNM no longer reflected the organisation he understood to have been shaped by former leaders Dr Eric Williams, George Chambers and Patrick Manning.

Primus also raised concerns about what he described as perceptions that positions of authority could be used for “personal ambition, self-aggrandisement or the interests of a privileged few rather than the national community.”

He declined, however, to specifically assess current political leader Pennelope Beckles-Robinson or say whether he believed she was the right person to lead the party.

Primus also made it clear that his resignation should not be interpreted as preparation to join the United National Congress (UNC) or any other political organisation.

“This is not a movement from PNM to UNC to NJAC to ULF or anything of that sort,” he said.

“I never came into politics to seek position and power and status. I came to serve.”

Primus said he intends to remain independent and continue contributing through his work with communities, NGOs and young people.

“The values are not the same values in 2026 that they were in 1999,” he said. “Surely they aren’t the same ones that started the organisation in 1956.”

Despite his departure, Primus wished the PNM well, expressing hope that its members would “summon the courage to call the party back to order” and undertake the transformation needed for it to again become a source of principled leadership and hope for the country.