A "shocked and sur­prised" To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter, Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin, has been cho­sen to act as Prime Min­is­ter dur­ing Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's ab­sence from T&T next week.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­firmed Al­leyne-Top­pin's act­ing ap­point­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day post-Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar leaves Port-of-Spain on Tues­day to at­tend the two-day Com­mon­wealth Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ships Fo­rum in Lon­don, which is be­ing host­ed by the Com­mon­wealth Busi­ness Coun­cil. T&T is the chair of the Com­mon­wealth. She re­turns on Thurs­day. Cab­i­net min­is­ters, in­clud­ing Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Em­manuel George, Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter, Fazal Karim, Hous­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment Min­is­ter, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter, Nizam Baksh, and Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter, Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh, ap­plaud­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar's an­nounce­ment.

It was the first post=Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre by the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment since as­sum­ing of­fice af­ter the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Al­leyne-Top­pin said she was pleased to be the first fe­male To­bag­on­ian to be ap­point­ed to act as Prime Min­is­ter of T&T.

She said she would do her best to serve the coun­try. She said where her abil­i­ty failed "I'm sure the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, the oth­er min­is­ters, all of my Cab­i­net col­leagues, will hold my hands and take me through." She ad­mit­ted to be­ing "quite new" to pol­i­tics in T&T. "It's re­al­ly a sur­prise, a shock to me to be called to this of­fice," she added. Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who was seat­ed next to her, said she hoped it was a pleas­ant sur­prise.

She told Al­leyne-Top­pin to "hold the seat warm for me."

The Prime Min­is­ter said the min­is­ter was cho­sen be­cause "she is com­pe­tent and ca­pa­ble as all my MPs are."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was of the view that an MP al­ways should act as PM and not as a sen­a­tor.

She said an elect­ed MP would have the votes and the con­fi­dence of elec­tors. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Al­leyne-Top­pin was cho­sen be­cause the Gov­ern­ment was a part­ner­ship. On the three pre­vi­ous oc­ca­sions she left T&T, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Chair­man Jack Warn­er, Con­gress of the Peo­ple po­lit­i­cal leader Win­ston Dook­er­an and Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice Er­rol McLeod act­ed as Prime Min­is­ter.

The PM said de­spite hav­ing the au­thor­i­ty to se­lect an act­ing PM on her own, she opt­ed to dis­cuss the mat­ter with her Cab­i­net and the de­ci­sion was tak­en yes­ter­day. "It's a con­sen­sus de­ci­sion," she added.