In a bold move that could sig­nal a fresh di­rec­tion for the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), sources close to the par­ty are hint­ing at a ma­jor Cab­i­net shake-up or re­align­ment of port­fo­lios with the ap­point­ment of Stu­art Young as Prime Min­is­ter.

As Dr Kei­th Row­ley pre­pares to pass the prime min­is­te­r­i­al ba­ton to En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, who will take on the reins of lead­er­ship start­ing tomor­row, po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents weigh in on his near­ly ten years of gov­ern­ing the coun­try.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­fused to ad­dress claims from Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley that their re­la­tion­ship soured af­ter she al­leged­ly or­ches­trat­ed for mem­bers of her then-Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship Cab­i­net and House Speak­er to record in­to the Hansard that he and his fa­ther were rapists.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has shared his pro­found dis­ap­point­ment in the lead­er­ship of To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, crit­i­cis­ing his gov­er­nance and de­ci­sion-mak­ing.

As Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley of­fi­cial­ly steps down from lead­er­ship af­ter a decade at the helm, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts have weighed in on his lega­cy, with one giv­ing him a fail­ing grade.

In T&T’s po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry, there has nev­er been a prime min­is­ter who vol­un­tar­i­ly re­signed from that high of­fice.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has de­clared that he has “no re­grets” about his tenure as he looks to­ward re­tire­ment on Sun­day.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr In­di­ra Ram­per­sad pre­dicts that the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed elec­tion date will be re­vealed on Sun­day, co­in­cid­ing with Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s of­fi­cial res­ig­na­tion. She made the state­ment when she was in­ter­viewed on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew.

Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s lead­er­ship style has long been a defin­ing fea­ture of his tenure as prime min­is­ter and as he pre­pares to ex­it the po­lit­i­cal stage, re­flec­tions on his lega­cy are as var­ied as the peo­ple he served.

As Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley pre­pares to leave of­fice, his fi­nal acts are un­der in­tense pub­lic scruti­ny. From ma­jor in­fra­struc­ture projects to leg­isla­tive de­ci­sions, his ad­min­is­tra­tion is mark­ing the “prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion” of key ini­tia­tives across var­i­ous sec­tors.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is switch­ing things up when it comes to the usu­al elec­tion time­line, hav­ing se­lect­ed all 41 prospec­tive can­di­dates to con­test the gen­er­al elec­tion be­fore the elec­tion date has even been an­nounced.

Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Fe­l­isha Thomas says the first or­der of busi­ness af­ter her vic­to­ry will be to oust the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) from of­fice.