As he bid farewell to the hun­dreds of Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment sup­port­ers and mem­bers gath­ered at City Hall, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, out­go­ing prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley dis­played a soft­er side.

The To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) has de­cid­ed not to move for­ward with nom­i­nees Trevor James and Bar­ry Nel­son as po­ten­tial can­di­dates for To­ba­go West, and has cho­sen to “con­sid­er ad­di­tion­al prospects.”

Dr Er­ic Williams’ quotes were na­tion-build­ing, Bas­deo Pan­day was of­ten sharp and wit­ty, but Dr Kei­th Row­ley was a Prime Min­is­ter tai­lor-made for the “meme” era. His sharp, some­times acer­bic re­torts were per­fect for “video re­ac­tions” or gifs—videos that de­scribed how you felt bet­ter than you ever could your­self. 

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress can­di­date for Point Fortin, Ernesto Ke­sar, ac­cused out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley of lack­ing em­pa­thy to­wards vic­tims of crime and their fam­i­lies.

To­day marks the last day of Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s term in of­fice. To­day, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment will hold a Spe­cial Con­ven­tion and then present its can­di­dates for the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign. At 10 am to­mor­row, Stu­art Young will be sworn in as prime min­is­ter.

The Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) has reached out to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) to dis­cuss its de­sire to con­test sev­er­al seats in the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

For­mer UNC mem­ber Lar­ry Lal­la is set to at­tend the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment pre­sen­ta­tion of can­di­dates event in Wood­ford Square, Port of Spain to­day.

In a bold move that could sig­nal a fresh di­rec­tion for the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), sources close to the par­ty are hint­ing at a ma­jor Cab­i­net shake-up or re­align­ment of port­fo­lios with the ap­point­ment of Stu­art Young as Prime Min­is­ter.

As Dr Kei­th Row­ley pre­pares to pass the prime min­is­te­r­i­al ba­ton to En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, who will take on the reins of lead­er­ship start­ing tomor­row, po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents weigh in on his near­ly ten years of gov­ern­ing the coun­try.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­fused to ad­dress claims from Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley that their re­la­tion­ship soured af­ter she al­leged­ly or­ches­trat­ed for mem­bers of her then-Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship Cab­i­net and House Speak­er to record in­to the Hansard that he and his fa­ther were rapists.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has shared his pro­found dis­ap­point­ment in the lead­er­ship of To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, crit­i­cis­ing his gov­er­nance and de­ci­sion-mak­ing.

As Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley of­fi­cial­ly steps down from lead­er­ship af­ter a decade at the helm, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts have weighed in on his lega­cy, with one giv­ing him a fail­ing grade.