Energy Minister Stuart Young will replace Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley as Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago when he demits office later this year.
The Prime Minister, who earlier signaled his intent to resign before the end of the legal limit of his term, yesterday announced that Young had received the majority support from the party’s caucus to serve as his replacement until the 2025 general election is called.
In 2014, Stuart Young made his debut in politics as a temporary opposition senator. The following year, he contested and won the Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s seat in a general election that saw victory for the People’s National Movement (PNM).
Young was appointed Minister in the Ministry of Attorney General and Legal Affairs in the Dr Keith Rowley-led government.
This, as Young had been a practicing attorney since 1998 and admitted to the bar in Trinidad and Tobago, London, the Commonwealth of Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Having graduated from the University of Nottingham, he acquired a wealth of experience in civil, commercial, banking, insurance law, industrial relations, public law constitutional law, and election petitions having dealt with many complex litigation matters.
Young has appeared as Counsel in Commissions of Enquiry, including the Piarco Commission of Enquiry, the Commission of Enquiry into the Construction Sector, and the Commission of Enquiry into the Hindu Credit Union and CL Financial.
Young has previously held the posts of Minister of National Security, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, and Minister of Communications.
He was elected chairman of the Peoples National Movement in 2022.
Young was awarded Silk and elevated to Senior Counsel on June 20, 2024.
In July 2024, Young was appointed to act as Prime Minister for the first time, following Rowley’s departure to Grenada. He has since acted as Prime Minister on several occasions.
Young will turn 50-years-old in February.
Meantime, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar lambasted the People’s National Movement (PNM) and Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley for what she said was an ‘undemocratic’.
Addressing her supporters during a United National Congress (UNC) Cottage meeting in Chaguanas last night, Persad-Bissessar criticised the move, stating, ‘Today, the PNM replaced a lazy, greedy, selfish old man with an equally lazy, greedy, selfish young man.’
Rowley she stated, will leave as Prime Minister without a single achievement in his name. In ten years as a Prime Minister, and other years in politics, this man has built nothing, created nothing, developed nothing,’ she stated.
‘Stuart (Young) also has the same legacy for these ten years in government; he was the minister of everything who has achieved nothing. Minister of Communications, failed at that ministry. Minister of National Security, failed, and then he was Minister of Energy, he destroyed the oil and gas sector,’ she stated.
She called Young’s selection an ‘affront to democracy.’
She also called on Rowley to call the 2025 general election early.