Yes­ter­day, five years al­most to the day af­ter he named Paula-Mae Weekes as his Gov­ern­ment’s can­di­date for Pres­i­dent, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley start­ed the process for the sec­ond time in his tenure.

He again named a woman for T&T’s high­est of­fice, Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, whose po­lit­i­cal back­ground has trig­gered some in­tense dis­cus­sions and de­bate.

Ms Kan­ga­loo, like the cur­rent of­fice hold­er, is a mem­ber of the le­gal pro­fes­sion. A grad­u­ate of the Hugh Wood­ing Law School, she was ad­mit­ted in­to prac­tice in 1985, and was at­tached to Hob­sons law cham­bers in south Trinidad be­fore her en­try in­to pol­i­tics in 2001 as a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor.

Her po­lit­i­cal ca­reer has in­clud­ed a stint as Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate in 2002 and as Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for So­cial De­liv­ery in the then-Patrick Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion in 2002, where al­so had the Le­gal Af­fairs port­fo­lio.

Ms Kan­ga­loo’s in­volve­ment in pol­i­tics has been sub­stan­tial. In 2007, she won the Pointe-à-Pierre seat on a PNM tick­et and was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion.

How­ev­er, it is in the Up­per House that Ms Kan­ga­loo has made her mark, with the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing the on­ly per­son to ever have served as Sen­ate Pres­i­dent and Vice Pres­i­dent.

That achieve­ment makes her a can­di­date with some knowl­edge of the work­ings of the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent, since she has of­ten act­ed for Pres­i­dent Weekes.

How­ev­er, un­like Pres­i­dent Weekes, ini­tial re­ac­tions to Dr Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment seem to in­di­cate the process of elect­ing T&T’s sev­enth Pres­i­dent will not be smooth. Ms Kan­ga­loo’s can­di­da­cy is al­ready un­der in­tense scruti­ny and there will be analy­sis and de­bate ahead of the Jan­u­ary 20 sit­ting of the Elec­toral Col­lege.

Her po­lit­i­cal pedi­gree will be un­der the mi­cro­scope, nev­er mind that she is not the first can­di­date from a po­lit­i­cal back­ground.

Arthur Napoleon Ray­mond Robin­son, T&T’s third Pres­i­dent from March 19, 1997, to March 17, 2003, al­so en­tered that of­fice af­ter a lengthy po­lit­i­cal ca­reer that in­clud­ed serv­ing as Prime Min­is­ter from De­cem­ber 18, 1986, to De­cem­ber 17, 1991.

Since then, there have been sig­nif­i­cant changes in this coun­try, most no­tably in at­ti­tudes to­ward the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent. Al­so, the po­lit­i­cal cli­mate is much more ad­ver­sar­i­al, and is even more so now than five years ago when Pres­i­dent Weekes made his­to­ry as the first woman to hold the of­fice.

This time around, Dr Row­ley has not been able to reach a con­sen­sus with Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress. In­stead, with­in hours of Ms Kan­ga­loo’s can­di­da­cy be­ing an­nounced, the Op­po­si­tion in­di­cat­ed it will be nam­ing its own choice.

It is al­most cer­tain that the path to the pres­i­den­cy will be event­ful and the can­di­dates from ei­ther side will be sub­ject­ed to a lot of scruti­ny in com­ing days.

In the end, how­ev­er, bear­ing in mind the weight of the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties that await who­ev­er be­comes T&T’s next Head of State, Com­man­der in Chief of the Armed Forces and repos­i­to­ry of all ex­ec­u­tive au­thor­i­ty, the abil­i­ty to func­tion above the cut and thrust of par­ti­san pol­i­tics is es­sen­tial.

Great care must be tak­en in choos­ing T&T’s sev­enth Pres­i­dent.