Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

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.

To­mor­row, as Young is sworn in as Prime Min­is­ter, his first de­ci­sive act in of­fice will be a Cab­i­net reshuf­fle, fea­tur­ing key changes to cru­cial min­istries ahead of the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

Among the most no­table changes, par­ty sources said, Kei­th Scot­land, SC, cur­rent­ly the Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, is tipped for el­e­va­tion to the pres­ti­gious role of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, re­plac­ing Regi­nald Ar­mour, SC, who has stepped down.

Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed yes­ter­day that Ar­mour was of­fered the post of Jus­tice of Ap­peal of the East­ern Caribbean Supreme Court (EC­SC).

Pri­or to re­plac­ing Faris Al-Rawi, SC, as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al in 2022, Ar­mour served as act­ing Jus­tice of Ap­peal at the EC­SC.

Ef­forts to con­tact Ar­mour about the de­vel­op­ment have been un­suc­cess­ful.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that among the oth­er shifts will be changes to the Min­istry of Fi­nance as well as the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

For­mer per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Vish­nu Dhan­paul is tipped to re­place Colm Im­bert, who has served in the post since 2015. Dhan­paul’s tenure as per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in­clud­ed sig­nif­i­cant events such as the Gov­ern­ment’s bailout of CL Fi­nan­cial in 2009.

Guardian Me­dia con­firmed that Dhan­paul, who was post­ed as T&T’s High Com­mis­sion­er to the Unit­ed King­dom, re­cent­ly re­turned to the coun­try. When con­tact­ed yes­ter­day re­gard­ing the po­ten­tial de­vel­op­ment, Dhan­paul stat­ed, “I have ab­solute­ly no com­ment on that is­sue.”

Par­ty sources said Im­bert, the PNM’s prospec­tive can­di­date for Diego Mar­tin North/East, is ex­pect­ed to be in­stalled as the new Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter. Mean­while, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les will be hand­ed the port­fo­lio of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, re­plac­ing Fitzger­ald Hinds, who with­drew his con­sent to be nom­i­nat­ed to con­test the Laven­tille West con­stituen­cy in the up­com­ing elec­tion. While in the Sen­ate last No­vem­ber, Hinds said he was mov­ing on from rep­re­sen­ta­tive pol­i­tics af­ter 30 years.

When con­tact­ed re­gard­ing the po­ten­tial reshuf­fle, Gon­za­les not­ed that “the on­ly per­son to con­firm this is the in­com­ing PM.”

Im­bert, how­ev­er, did not re­spond to a mes­sage sent to him about the mat­ter.

With the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries with­out a min­is­ter as Young is to be ap­point­ed PM, at­ten­tion will al­so be on po­ten­tial can­di­dates to fill the po­si­tion.

The En­er­gy Min­istry, con­sid­ered one of the coun­try’s most im­por­tant, plays a cru­cial role in man­ag­ing en­er­gy re­sources, over­see­ing poli­cies re­lat­ed to the oil and gas sec­tors, and work­ing close­ly with in­ter­na­tion­al stake­hold­ers in the en­er­gy in­dus­try.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar la­belled Ar­mour as the worst at­tor­ney gen­er­al in our coun­try’s his­to­ry.

She ac­cused him of be­ing a “liar and a dunce” when he was put un­der the pub­lic spot­light. She ex­pressed shock that Ar­mour, “who was dis­qual­i­fied from rep­re­sent­ing T&T as AG in a Mi­a­mi court, is now be­ing made an ap­peal court judge in the East­ern Caribbean, ac­cord­ing to your re­port­ing. That is an ab­solute dis­grace and em­bar­rass­ment.”

Will Row­ley re­sign as PNM’s po­lit­i­cal leader?

Mean­while, sources close to the Gov­ern­ment have told Guardian Me­dia that out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley may an­nounce his res­ig­na­tion as po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM dur­ing the par­ty’s ral­ly and can­di­date pre­sen­ta­tion at Wood­ford Square to­day.

Al­though Dr Row­ley did not re­spond to ques­tions about the pos­si­bil­i­ty when con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, his res­ig­na­tion would have sig­nif­i­cant im­pli­ca­tions—not on­ly for the rul­ing par­ty ahead of the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion but al­so for the on­go­ing po­lit­i­cal dra­ma sur­round­ing the tran­si­tion of pow­er to Prime Min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Young.

The an­nounce­ment could block any im­me­di­ate le­gal ac­tion that the Op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is re­port­ed­ly con­sid­er­ing re­gard­ing the swear­ing-in of Young.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­tend­ed that how Young was anoint­ed as Dr Row­ley’s suc­ces­sor was in con­tra­ven­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion and that Dr Row­ley ei­ther dis­solve the Par­lia­ment and call the gen­er­al elec­tion with­in the stip­u­lat­ed time frame or have the Pres­i­dent con­sult with the min­is­ters and con­firm an ap­point­ment.

Dur­ing a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing last week, Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that “you can­not pro­ceed un­der sec­tion 76 (1) of the Con­sti­tu­tion where there is oc­ca­sion to ap­point a prime min­is­ter, that the Pres­i­dent should ap­point a mem­ber of the house who is the leader of the House.”

How­ev­er, dur­ing a wide-rang­ing in­ter­view with the me­dia that was aired on Thurs­day, Dr Row­ley rub­bished Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s claims and not­ed that he had sought le­gal ad­vice on the mat­ter be­fore pro­ceed­ing.

“So if you see me do­ing that, as­sume that I am prop­er­ly ad­vised by law. But my lawyer isn’t on any plat­form talk­ing fool­ish­ness. My lawyer ad­vis­es me qui­et­ly. And to the ex­tent that the Gov­ern­ment is in­volved, I pre­sume that the Gov­ern­ment has been prop­er­ly ad­vised and so the Pres­i­dent.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar has since called on Dr Row­ley to pub­licly re­lease the le­gal opin­ion he claims to have that sup­ports the anoint­ing of Young as Prime Min­is­ter.

She said, “The UNC firm­ly be­lieves that Young’s ap­point­ment is il­le­gal as long as Row­ley re­mains the PNM’s po­lit­i­cal leader. On­ly if Row­ley steps down si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly as both PNM leader and prime min­is­ter would Young’s ap­point­ment be con­sti­tu­tion­al.”

It is be­lieved that if Dr Row­ley, who has served as Prime Min­is­ter of T&T since 2015, for­mal­ly steps down from his lead­er­ship role with­in the PNM, it will nul­li­fy any le­gal chal­lenge the UNC might launch re­gard­ing the le­git­i­ma­cy of Young’s ap­point­ment.