In T&T’s po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry, there has nev­er been a prime min­is­ter who vol­un­tar­i­ly re­signed from that high of­fice.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has de­clared that he has “no re­grets” about his tenure as he looks to­ward re­tire­ment on Sun­day.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr In­di­ra Ram­per­sad pre­dicts that the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed elec­tion date will be re­vealed on Sun­day, co­in­cid­ing with Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s of­fi­cial res­ig­na­tion. She made the state­ment when she was in­ter­viewed on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew.

Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s lead­er­ship style has long been a defin­ing fea­ture of his tenure as prime min­is­ter and as he pre­pares to ex­it the po­lit­i­cal stage, re­flec­tions on his lega­cy are as var­ied as the peo­ple he served.

As Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley pre­pares to leave of­fice, his fi­nal acts are un­der in­tense pub­lic scruti­ny. From ma­jor in­fra­struc­ture projects to leg­isla­tive de­ci­sions, his ad­min­is­tra­tion is mark­ing the “prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion” of key ini­tia­tives across var­i­ous sec­tors.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is switch­ing things up when it comes to the usu­al elec­tion time­line, hav­ing se­lect­ed all 41 prospec­tive can­di­dates to con­test the gen­er­al elec­tion be­fore the elec­tion date has even been an­nounced.

Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Fe­l­isha Thomas says the first or­der of busi­ness af­ter her vic­to­ry will be to oust the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) from of­fice.

For To­bag­o­ni­ans, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s tenure leaves be­hind a mixed lega­cy on the is­land. While some praise his con­tri­bu­tions, oth­ers be­lieve he could have done more for his birth­place.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­scribed the res­ig­na­tion of four more mem­bers of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) La Brea con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive as child­ish and ir­rel­e­vant to the par­ty’s gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign.

Amid a flur­ry of res­ig­na­tions with­in her par­ty, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is urg­ing sup­port­ers not to be fooled by trai­tors of the UNC who have switched al­le­giance to the PNM in the lead-up to the gen­er­al elec­tions.

Sec­ondary school teacher Mar­isha Al­vara­do is the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) new prospec­tive 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­date for Tabaquite.

Two terms and al­most ten years lat­er, how will Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley be re­mem­bered when he steps away from that of­fice next week?