With a state­ment at the end of his me­dia con­fer­ence in To­ba­go yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley put an end to any spec­u­la­tions about his po­lit­i­cal fu­ture.

“Be­fore the end of the le­gal lim­its of this term, I will re­sign this of­fice and go off to my fam­i­ly,” he said, trig­ger­ing a flood of com­ments and spec­u­la­tion.

His an­nounce­ment that he will be step­ping down as Prime Min­is­ter and the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Diego Mar­tin West, while not com­plete­ly un­ex­pect­ed, adds greater ur­gency to the search for the next po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

Dr Row­ley, 75, first spoke about step­ping away from ac­tive pol­i­tics in his vic­to­ry speech at Bal­isi­er House in Au­gust 2020, af­ter win­ning his sec­ond con­sec­u­tive term as prime min­is­ter. How­ev­er, it was his hint at re­tire­ment dur­ing his con­tri­bu­tion to the Bud­get de­bate late last year that sparked de­bate about the fu­ture lead­er­ship of the par­ty. How­ev­er, the lead­er­ship is­sue is now one that will have to be set­tled quick­ly, as a gen­er­al elec­tion is due lat­er this year.

Dr Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment has re­vived spec­u­la­tion about En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, the MP for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West. How­ev­er, al­though wide­ly re­gard­ed as Dr Row­ley’s pre­ferred choice as suc­ces­sor, Young is not an au­to­mat­ic shoo-in for the po­si­tion, as oth­er names have been thrown in­to the ring, in­clud­ing Fos­ter Cum­mings, Amery Browne and Pen­ne­lope Beck­les.

Ex­pect in the com­ing days for a lot of at­ten­tion to be paid to ac­tiv­i­ties at Bal­isi­er House, as the race to pick the next PNM po­lit­i­cal leader shifts in­to high gear.

In the com­ing days, Dr Row­ley will pre­side over a Cab­i­net re­treat and elec­tion screen­ings in To­ba­go, his birth­place and where he launched his first bid to be­come a po­lit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tive in 1981. On that oc­ca­sion, he was the los­ing can­di­date for To­ba­go West.

Now, af­ter 45 years in pol­i­tics, capped off by his tenure as T&T’s sev­enth Prime Min­is­ter over two suc­ces­sive terms and 14 years as po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM, Dr Row­ley is prepar­ing to step out of the po­lit­i­cal lime­light.

A vol­ca­nol­o­gist by pro­fes­sion with a doc­tor­ate in ge­ol­o­gy and on­ly the sec­ond To­bag­on­ian to serve as prime min­is­ter of this coun­try, his de­par­ture comes as the PNM pre­pares for a dif­fi­cult elec­tion cam­paign where its han­dling of crime and the econ­o­my will come un­der some harsh scruti­ny.

At the par­ty lev­el, his po­lit­i­cal lega­cy in­cludes in­tro­duc­ing a one-man one-vote sys­tem for in­ter­nal elec­tions.

It re­mains to be seen whether his sup­port for the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) to re­place the Ju­di­cial Com­mit­tee of the Privy Coun­cil as T&T’s fi­nal court of ap­peals will be achieved, along with his pro­posed re­moval of Christo­pher Colum­bus’ ships from the coat of arms and re­place­ment with the steel­pan, which had been de­clared the of­fi­cial na­tion­al mu­sic in­stru­ment a few months ear­li­er.

How­ev­er, these mat­ters pale in com­par­i­son to the races to fill two po­si­tions that will soon be va­cant—PNM leader and prime min­is­ter of T&T.