Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly has with­drawn his can­di­da­cy for Ch­agua­nas West in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion, cit­ing con­cerns over what he called the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) in­creas­ing­ly “di­vi­sive racial rhetoric as its cen­tral mes­sage.” He re­mains a mem­ber of the par­ty though.

Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly has with­drawn his can­di­da­cy for Ch­agua­nas West in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion, cit­ing con­cerns over what he called the UNC's in­creas­ing­ly "di­vi­sive racial rhetoric as its cen­tral mes­sage." He re­mains a mem­ber of the par­ty though.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says her par­ty will not ho­n­our any agree­ment the cur­rent Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gov­ern­ment en­ters in­to re­gard­ing the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery—and she says Gov­ern­ment’s “col­lud­ing” with Nico­las Maduro’s Venezuela regime is the “worst Bend Over” in T&T’s en­er­gy sec­tor his­to­ry.

Two po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tists sug­gest that cit­i­zens could be head­ing to the polls in Au­gust, as it may be the most strate­gic time for prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young to call the gen­er­al elec­tion.

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.

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

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.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has heaped scorn on the tenure of out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, ac­cus­ing him of pre­sid­ing over a crime epi­dem­ic that cost thou­sands of in­no­cent lives, the col­lapse of the econ­o­my and over­all na­tion­al hard­ship.

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.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has con­firmed that in just over two weeks, he will hand over lead­er­ship of Trinidad and To­ba­go to prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young.

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.