Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has re­spond­ed to a bul­ly­ing in­ci­dent which oc­curred when he was a stu­dent at St Mary’s Col­lege 33 years ago.

Based on all that our sources have been telling us over the past few weeks, we were not in the least sur­prised yes­ter­day by Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young’s an­nounce­ment of an April 28 elec­tion date.

That’s the date an­nounced by the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter (OPM) at 3.50 pm yes­ter­day for T&T’s next gen­er­al elec­tion.

Three po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts be­lieve that new­ly mint­ed Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young’s swift an­nounce­ment of the gen­er­al elec­tion date—less than 24 hours af­ter tak­ing the oath of of­fice—sug­gests in­ter­nal tur­moil with­in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM). Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Derek Ram­samooj likened the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion to a po­lit­i­cal sprint, short­er than a 60-me­tre dash.

Po­lit­i­cal par­ties in To­ba­go all say they are ready for bat­tle af­ter the elec­tion date—April 28—was an­nounced yes­ter­day.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro can­di­date Phillip Watts has called on PNM sup­port­ers to close that “red door” and en­ter the “house of yel­low.”

The Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of Com­merce is call­ing on all po­lit­i­cal lead­ers to ad­dress the ur­gent eco­nom­ic and busi­ness chal­lenges fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of the gen­er­al elec­tion on April 28, 2025.

Fer­di­nand “Fer­die” Fer­reira, a found­ing mem­ber of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and sea­soned po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor, has called for Dr Kei­th Row­ley to re­lin­quish his role as par­ty po­lit­i­cal leader be­fore the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tions.

The threat of le­gal ac­tion chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his ap­point­ment isn’t the biggest hur­dle for Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young. His biggest task will be win­ning suf­fi­cient good­will to suc­cess­ful­ly lead his Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­to gen­er­al elec­tions that must be held no lat­er than No­vem­ber 28. That isn’t much time to gain the nec­es­sary po­lit­i­cal trac­tion in what is shap­ing up to be a crowd­ed elec­toral race that is like­ly to in­clude a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)-led coali­tion among the var­i­ous con­tenders. He will need PNM sup­port­ers to ral­ly around him and ex­pand the rul­ing par­ty’s sup­port base be­yond its tra­di­tion­al strong­holds.

To­ba­go Cham­ber head and at­tor­ney at law, Mar­tin George says the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is en­ter­ing the Gen­er­al Elec­tion from a “po­si­tion of strength and readi­ness,” while the op­po­si­tion and oth­er par­ties are still try­ing to get their hous­es in or­der.

Wat­son Duke, leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP), has con­firmed he will con­test a seat in the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion, set­ting the stage for a fierce bat­tle in To­ba­go. The April 28 date elec­tion date was an­nounced on Tues­day and both the PDP and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) are prepar­ing for a heat­ed con­test in To­ba­go East and To­ba­go West.

Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA), Gary Grif­fith, said his par­ty an­tic­i­pat­ed the April 28 elec­tion date and has been prepar­ing ac­cord­ing­ly.