While Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s de­ci­sion to re­sign as Prime Min­is­ter of T&T be­fore the le­gal end of his term is not a unique one, he is set­ting a prece­dent across the Caribbean by re­main­ing leader of the par­ty–the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)– post-res­ig­na­tion.

Over the years, re­gion­al heads of state like Per­ci­val James (PJ) Pat­ter­son and Bruce Gold­ing of Ja­maica and Eu­ge­nia Charles of Do­mini­ca opt­ed for ear­ly po­lit­i­cal ex­its, mak­ing room for their suc­ces­sors to take over as Prime Min­is­ter and par­ty lead­ers.

In T&T’s case, how­ev­er, Dr Row­ley will have the fi­nal say with­in the PNM but ul­ti­mate­ly, En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Stu­art Young will be the one to gov­ern the coun­try un­til the next gen­er­al elec­tion.