Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo has as­sured that the ap­point­ment of Stu­art Young as Prime Min­is­ter was done in ac­cor­dance with the Con­sti­tu­tion.

Amid ques­tions and con­cerns about the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the move, the Pres­i­dent, in a state­ment to the me­dia af­ter the swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House of Young and new At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, broke her si­lence on the mat­ter.

She ac­knowl­edged that while the ap­point­ment was un­der “unique cir­cum­stances” it was con­duct­ed in ac­cor­dance with the law.

“This state­ment is made in light of the present unique cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the tran­si­tion from one Prime Min­is­ter to an­oth­er. It is made in the in­ter­est of trans­paren­cy and so as to as­sist the pub­lic in un­der­stand­ing why I have act­ed as I have,” Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo said.

Short­ly af­ter for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced his res­ig­na­tion and the de­ci­sion to make Young his suc­ces­sor, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, claimed the process was in con­tra­ven­tion of sec­tion 76 (1) of the con­sti­tu­tion.

She ar­gued that the word “Leader” was cap­i­talised dur­ing the con­sti­tu­tion’s amend­ment, which meant that the on­ly per­son qual­i­fied to be prime min­is­ter was the po­lit­i­cal head of a par­ty in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

How­ev­er, yes­ter­day Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo ref­er­enced let­ters de­tail­ing Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s res­ig­na­tion as prime min­is­ter and let­ters from 21 Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment mem­bers who sit in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives en­dors­ing Young as prime min­is­ter as well as a let­ter from Young stat­ing his will­ing­ness to ac­cept the post which had been va­cat­ed.

“In my own de­lib­er­ate judge­ment, in­clud­ing hav­ing re­gard to the let­ters to me from 21 mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives dat­ed March 12, 2025 as afore­said, and to the let­ter to me dat­ed March 12, 2025 from the Ho­n­ourable Mr Stu­art Young, SC, MP, dat­ed March 12, 2025 as afore­said, the Leader in that House of the par­ty which com­mands the ma­jor­i­ty of mem­bers of that House, is the Ho­n­ourable Mr Stu­art Young, SC, MP and the Ho­n­ourable Mr Stu­art Young, SC, MP, is will­ing to ac­cept the of­fice of Prime Min­is­ter.”

Her Ex­cel­len­cy said, “I trust that it will there­fore be un­der­stood that my task has been to ap­point a Prime Min­is­ter, as is re­quired by the Con­sti­tu­tion, in the unique cir­cum­stances that pre­sent­ed them­selves, and to do so in ac­cor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of the Con­sti­tu­tion and that this is what I have done.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not at­tend the cer­e­mo­ny yes­ter­day.

Asked about the con­cerns, the new Prime Min­is­ter hoped that the Op­po­si­tion Leader’s po­si­tion would not dis­rupt na­tion­al af­fairs. 

“So I ask the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion to join with me to build a bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go and that is as much as I can do and I ask that with clean hands and a clean heart,” said Young.

Mean­while, new­ly in­stalled At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is was con­fi­dent in Gov­ern­ment’s ef­forts to fend off the le­gal threats sur­round­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Young’s ap­point­ment. 

“We have looked at the Con­sti­tu­tion our­selves, we have looked at the claus­es that re­late to the ap­point­ment of a prime min­is­ter, in ad­di­tion to the let­ters sent to the Pres­i­dent, every pos­si­ble bug­bear in that ap­point­ment and we be­lieve we are on a strong foot­ing,” Robin­son-Reg­is said.

The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al said if the Op­po­si­tion’s court threat con­tin­ued, the Gov­ern­ment would not back down.

“We will wait and see if that threat be­comes a re­al­i­ty.”

How­ev­er, soon af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in a state­ment, dou­bled down on her po­si­tion and la­belled the de­vel­op­ment as an at­tack on democ­ra­cy.

“We have wit­nessed noth­ing short of a bla­tant dis­re­gard for the Con­sti­tu­tion as the PNM des­per­ate­ly scram­bles to hold on­to pow­er through de­cep­tion and ma­nip­u­la­tion. The ap­point­ment of Stu­art Young as Prime Min­is­ter, with­out the man­date of the peo­ple through a Gen­er­al Elec­tion, is an un­law­ful act of des­per­a­tion. It is a clear at­tempt to man­u­fac­ture the il­lu­sion of change in the hope that cit­i­zens will for­get the last ten years of pain, suf­fer­ing, abuse, and noth­ing­ness un­der this failed ad­min­is­tra­tion.”