Af­ter 34 years as the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Diego Mar­tin West, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley bid farewell to par­ty mem­bers, as well as con­stituen­cy staff and friends in a cer­e­mo­ny on Sat­ur­day night at the Diego Mar­tin Com­mu­ni­ty South Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

But his farewell cre­at­ed a stir when he men­tioned a nom­i­nee hop­ing to con­test the seat for the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment in the gen­er­al elec­tion.

Be­fore be­gin­ning his ad­dress, the Prime Min­is­ter, who is ex­pect­ed to re­tire in the com­ing weeks, asked to thank his wife, Sharon, first, in­stead of Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials as pro­to­col usu­al­ly dic­tates. Dur­ing his speech, he praised her for the sup­port she of­fered through­out his ca­reer.

“The peo­ple I re­al­ly want to ac­knowl­edge tonight are the ac­tivists who made me what I’ve be­come and who made Diego Mar­tin what we now en­joy.

“As I move back in­to our com­mu­ni­ty full time and to To­ba­go, of course, which I will go to from time to time, we will walk in the park – our newest park – we will walk and shop in the mall. Be­cause now, as I get up in the morn­ing I have no sched­ule to keep,” he said to ap­plause.

The Prime Min­is­ter as­sured those in at­ten­dance that he was leav­ing the con­stituen­cy in good hands.

He in­ter­est­ing­ly sin­gled out one of the par­ty’s can­di­dates hop­ing to be se­lect­ed as the PNM’s nom­i­nee for the seat for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions - me­dia per­son­al­i­ty, Hans des Vi­gnes.

“I know I am leav­ing you in good hands…If I was leav­ing you in op­po­si­tion I would be con­cerned but I am leav­ing you with Fos­ter (Cum­mings), I am leav­ing you with Nyan (Gads­by-Dol­ly), I am leav­ing you with Symon (De No­bri­ga), I am leav­ing you with Kaz­im (Ho­sein), I am leav­ing you with Hans (des Vi­gnes)…” he said to ap­plause.

De­spite the Prime Min­is­ter’s en­dorse­ment, con­stituen­cy chair­man Jack­ie Lazarus told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that a nom­i­nee was not yet se­lect­ed as a date for screen­ing had not yet been de­cid­ed. She said the Prime Min­is­ter is set to trav­el soon, so the screen­ing will like­ly be held on his re­turn.

Guardian Me­dia has been told by par­ty sources that des Vi­gnes is the favourite for the po­si­tion, but tem­po­rary Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor Yokym­ma Bethelmy al­so hopes to get the nod as well as oth­er con­tenders.

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne ini­tial­ly put his name for­ward but lat­er with­drew his can­di­da­cy.

Dur­ing his farewell speech, the out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter re­called start­ing his jour­ney with the PNM in Tu­na­puna in 1974, be­fore ‘drift­ing’ in­to Four Roads, Diego Mar­tin in the mid-70s af­ter leav­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus.

“As I re­turn to live in my own house in the com­ing weeks, I come back to meet you, very much like I met you at the be­gin­ning.

“Diego Mar­tin, I am proud of you. And I hope Diego Mar­tin, that af­ter all these years, of thick and thin, you are proud of me,” Row­ley said.

Dur­ing his ca­reer, he served as Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter, Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter, Hous­ing Min­is­ter, as well as Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter.

Row­ley be­came a sen­a­tor in 1987 and was re-elect­ed as MP for nine con­sec­u­tive par­lia­men­tary terms. He was elect­ed as Diego Mar­tin West MP in De­cem­ber 1991, re­plac­ing Mar­garet Hec­tor of the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion. Be­tween 1987 and 2008, he was the Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the PNM, be­fore be­com­ing the par­ty’s po­lit­i­cal leader in 2010.

Be­tween 2010 and 2015, he was the op­po­si­tion leader, be­fore be­com­ing the Prime Min­is­ter.