Ashton Ford: Young's PM appointment will be done legally

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."

She said alternatively the Prime Minister could dissolve Parliament and call the general election, freeing up the PM's post.

With Dr Rowley due to step down on March 16, the same date as a PNM special convention and a PNM public rally, both of which to present its 41 candidates for the general election, Ford was confident the way was clear for Young to replace Dr Rowley.

Ford said, "Well let me tell you from the onset, the PNM would never have embarked on this mission if they were not confident that they were taking the right course of action, of course with legal advice and so on."

He noted this was the first time for such a scenario being played out in the history of TT's politics.

"Therefore nobody knows how the outcome will be in terms of challenges," Ford said, "but in terms of the PNM, I am confident they will not go into that situation without a plan, and proper execution. And so far as far as I am concerned, I am seeing that."

He said such a scenario had always been a possibility.

Newsday asked how George Chambers had become PM upon the death of TT's first leader Dr Eric Williams.

Ford related, "Eric died at five o'clock in the evening and by 8 am the next morning we had a prime minister."

He said then-president Sir Ellis Clarke had consulted then-PNM chairman Francis "Boysie" Prevatt and other PNM officials.

"George Chambers functioned as prime minister, until the PNM convention endorsed him. So those are the steps.

"I am seeing a similar situation that he (Young) will be endorsed by a convention."

Ford said Williams' death and Rowley's pending exit were each first-time occasions.

"I am confident that nothing untoward will happen in the express position the party has taken.

"And we must also wait to see what happens on Sunday at Woodford Square. You never know, the election date may be announced."

WHAT THE LAW SAYS:

The TT Constitution section 76(1) says, "Where there is occasion for the appointment of a prime minister, the president shall appoint as prime minister –

(a) a member of the House of Representatives who is the leader in that House of the party which commands the support of the majority of members of that House; or

"(b) where it appears to him that that party does not have an undisputed leader in that House or that no party commands the support of such a majority,

the member of the House of Representatives who, in his judgement, is most likely to command the support of the majority of members of that House, and who is willing to accept the office of prime minister."