The se­lec­tion of Jear­lean John to act as prime min­is­ter dur­ing Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's six-day vis­it to New York, pri­mar­i­ly to ad­dress the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, is an in­ter­est­ing de­vel­op­ment that may have ini­tial­ly sur­prised some.

On re­flec­tion, though, John's act­ing ap­point­ment may be seen as an as­tute po­lit­i­cal move, giv­en the per­cep­tion that she rep­re­sents the East-West cor­ri­dor wing of the rul­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). The UNC may feel the par­ty's sup­port along the cor­ri­dor has de­clined, giv­en Gov­ern­ment's re­struc­tur­ing of the Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP) and Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme.

That notwith­stand­ing, John's ap­point­ment to act dur­ing the PM's first over­seas trip since her April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion vic­to­ry, is de­serv­ing, giv­en her rep­u­ta­tion for hard work, get­ting things done and her ma­tu­ri­ty.

Ms John's ex­pe­ri­ence in gov­ern­ment start­ed in the Sen­ate in 2000, in the fifth Re­pub­li­can Cab­i­net un­der the ad­min­is­tra­tion of Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day. She was ap­point­ed as the Min­is­ter of Trans­port in 2001.

She is al­so one of three UNC deputy lead­ers along­side MPs David Lee and Dr Roodal Mooni­lal. While Dr Mooni­lal has more min­is­te­r­i­al ex­pe­ri­ence than John, she did not run for the po­lit­i­cal leader po­si­tion in op­po­si­tion to Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

John is al­so per­ceived to be one of the PM's clos­est ad­vi­sors, along with Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath, and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen.

Mr Padarath, who took on the role of Gov­ern­ment spokesman dur­ing its ear­ly months, is part of T&T del­e­ga­tion trav­el­ling to New York to­day. So too is Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sad­dam Ho­sein.

On the is­sue of John's ap­point­ment as act­ing prime min­is­ter, the most per­ti­nent ques­tion is does it mean she is Per­sad-Bisses­sar's cho­sen suc­ces­sor?

Giv­en Per­sad-Bisses­sar's track record in her first term be­tween 2010 and 2015, the an­swer is like­ly to be no.

In that pe­ri­od, the fol­low­ing MPs served as act­ing prime min­is­ter: Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal; Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Prakash Ra­mad­har; Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Win­ston Dook­er­an and Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan; Min­is­ter of Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment, Mar­lene Coudray and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin.

It could be that Per­sad-Bisses­sar chose a dif­fer­ent per­son to act every time she was out of T&T in or­der to quell any po­ten­tial­ly dis­rup­tive dis­cus­sions about who she had anoint­ed to lead the par­ty.

Giv­en the dif­fi­cul­ties that for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley ran in­to when he se­lect­ed Stu­art Young to suc­ceed him ear­li­er this year, the cur­rent Prime Min­is­ter would be po­lit­i­cal­ly wise to side­step such an un­forced er­ror.

T&T's Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion makes it clear, at sec­tion 76, that when there is oc­ca­sion for the ap­point­ment of a Prime Min­is­ter, the Pres­i­dent shall ap­point the "mem­ber of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives who is the Leader in that House of the par­ty which com­mands the sup­port of the ma­jor­i­ty of mem­bers of that House," and is will­ing to serve.

It is clear, then, that even if the Prime Min­is­ter were to choose a suc­ces­sor and if she is un­able to con­tin­ue serv­ing as T&T's po­lit­i­cal leader, it would be up to the 28 oth­er MPs, in the first in­stance, to do so.

John there­fore would need the sup­port of her col­leagues and ul­ti­mate­ly her par­ty. Fol­low­ing this first ap­point­ment, there­fore, the coun­try waits to see what plans Per­sad-Bisses­sar has for the lead­er­ship of the par­ty.