The threat of le­gal ac­tion chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his ap­point­ment isn’t the biggest hur­dle for Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young. His biggest task will be win­ning suf­fi­cient good­will to suc­cess­ful­ly lead his Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­to gen­er­al elec­tions that must be held no lat­er than No­vem­ber 28. That isn’t much time to gain the nec­es­sary po­lit­i­cal trac­tion in what is shap­ing up to be a crowd­ed elec­toral race that is like­ly to in­clude a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)-led coali­tion among the var­i­ous con­tenders. He will need PNM sup­port­ers to ral­ly around him and ex­pand the rul­ing par­ty’s sup­port base be­yond its tra­di­tion­al strong­holds.

Since time isn’t on his side, Young has to hit the ground run­ning, demon­strat­ing the qual­i­ty of lead­er­ship he pledged in his in­au­gur­al ad­dress short­ly af­ter he took the oath of of­fice yes­ter­day. He must im­me­di­ate­ly dis­tin­guish him­self from his pre­de­ces­sor, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, in how he han­dles mat­ters of state.

At the helm of a Cab­i­net that has not changed sig­nif­i­cant­ly from the one Dr Row­ley presided over, Young’s han­dling of the econ­o­my and the coun­try’s crime cri­sis will be scru­ti­nised and analysed.

His po­lit­i­cal and ad­min­is­tra­tive moves will be dis­sect­ed and there will be much de­bate about his suit­abil­i­ty to serve a full term as prime min­is­ter and take over as po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM.

The bot­tom line is that there will be no hon­ey­moon for the Prime Min­is­ter, who has as­cend­ed to high po­lit­i­cal of­fice with just over a decade of ex­pe­ri­ence to his cred­it.

He was not well known out­side of le­gal cir­cles when he be­gan his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer 11 years ago with an ap­point­ment as a tem­po­rary op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor. Af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tion of 2015, Young was in­stalled as the Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP and took on his first min­is­te­r­i­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. How­ev­er, he has en­joyed a rel­a­tive­ly rapid rise through the PNM ranks and has been serv­ing as chair­man since De­cem­ber 2022, a po­si­tion that puts him firm­ly with­in the par­ty’s in­ner cir­cle of in­flu­ence.

PM Young now has to draw deeply on the ex­pe­ri­ence gained dur­ing two con­sec­u­tive terms as a mem­ber of the Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion to nav­i­gate T&T’s com­plex po­lit­i­cal land­scape, where the two main par­ties, the PNM and UNC, are both fac­ing sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges.

In­cum­ben­cy could turn out to be an elec­toral dis­ad­van­tage for the PNM, with un­em­ploy­ment, for­eign ex­change short­ages and poor in­fra­struc­ture among the is­sues af­fect­ing the econ­o­my. Then there is the much big­ger is­sue of crime—gang vi­o­lence, gun crime and mur­ders—which have in­creased dra­mat­i­cal­ly over the past two terms of PNM rule.

These are mat­ters that can fu­el vot­er dis­con­tent against the Prime Min­is­ter and his PNM team on the cam­paign trail.

How­ev­er, with the na­tion’s eyes on him in the short time be­fore the elec­tion, Prime Min­is­ter Young has to grasp the op­por­tu­ni­ty to demon­strate that he is lead­ing T&T in­to a new chap­ter, as he promised in his in­au­gur­al ad­dress yes­ter­day.

“The fights be­fore us de­mand uni­ty, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and de­ci­sive ac­tion,” he said.

He will be judged on his abil­i­ty to de­liv­er on his promis­es and par­tic­u­lar­ly on his pledge to lead “with in­tegri­ty, in­clu­sion, and ac­count­abil­i­ty.” That will de­ter­mine his po­lit­i­cal fu­ture.

Soon enough, how­ev­er, based on his per­for­mance, the elec­torate will ei­ther en­dorse or re­ject Young’s lead­er­ship.