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FORMER Arima Mayor Ashton Ford said he expected the PNM was quite confident of the legality of appointing Energy Minister Stuart Young to be prime minister before he ascends to the leadership of the ruling party. He spoke to Newsday on March 11, the day after Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar told a UNC rally in Moruga that any attempt to name Young as PM would be opposed by legal challenges from a battery of UNC attorneys.

Persad-Bissessar had said, "I am warning you: should you proceed with this manner, recklessly Rowley, you, Stuart Young and the President would face the brilliant UNC lawyers in the court house of TT.

"So you cannot proceed under section 76(1) of the Constitution. Where there is occasion to appoint a prime minister, the president should appoint a member of the House who is the leader of the House."