The let­ter from the 21 Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) MPs who sup­port En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young’s el­e­va­tion to prime min­is­ter will come in­to play af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley sub­mits his let­ter of res­ig­na­tion to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo on March 16.

The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is hop­ing for a smooth tran­si­tion of pow­er when En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Stu­art Young takes over from Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley on March 16.

Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) leader Gary Grif­fith has stressed that his par­ty wasn’t in­volved in invit­ing UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to a March 12 meet­ing be­ing held by NTA, HOPE and Com­mu­ni­ty Ref­or­ma­tion Net­work. The three groups have formed the Pro­gres­sive Al­liance coali­tion.

Af­ter keep­ing the coun­try guess­ing for sev­er­al weeks, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has fi­nal­ly lift­ed the lid on when he will demit of­fice.

UNC Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­ject­ed a “One Love” out­reach by the Pro­gres­sive Al­liance (PATT) coali­tion—com­pris­ing HOPE, Gary Grif­fith’s Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA), and the Com­mu­ni­ty Ref­or­ma­tion Net­work. She al­so said the UNC was not in­ter­est­ed in at­tend­ing the coali­tion’s March 12 pub­lic meet­ing.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is not yet ready to say when he is step­ping down. When asked about his last day in of­fice, Row­ley sim­ply re­spond­ed, “Not yet,” be­fore get­ting in­to his ve­hi­cle and leav­ing.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced he will of­fi­cial­ly re­sign from of­fice on March 16.

Amidst con­cerns over a loss of mem­bers from the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she is still con­fi­dent in her par­ty’s chances of win­ning this year’s gen­er­al elec­tion.

The Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Barataria/San Juan, Sad­dam Ho­sein, has crit­i­cised Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s han­dling of his po­ten­tial res­ig­na­tion, call­ing it a "po­lit­i­cal gim­mick" and warn­ing of its se­ri­ous im­pli­ca­tions for the coun­try.

So-called Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) “dis­si­dent,” Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, says if he is un­able to se­cure his ex­ist­ing can­di­da­cy, he’ll en­gage in open di­a­logue with the peo­ple of Ma­yaro, and any de­ci­sion about his po­lit­i­cal fu­ture will be made with their in­put and best in­ter­ests in mind.

At­tor­ney Lar­ry Lal­la, SC, has part­ed ways with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) af­ter a 13-year tenure with the par­ty.

For­mer House Speak­er Nizam Mo­hammed has weighed in on the is­sue re­gard­ing the process in­volved in Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley's with­draw­al from of­fice. He says the re­place­ment of Row­ley as the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's (PNM) leader is sep­a­rate and apart, rest­ing sole­ly in the do­main of the PNM, and has noth­ing to do with ref­er­ence to Sec­tion 76 of the Con­sti­tu­tion.