With the Gen­er­al Elec­tion near­ing, po­lit­i­cal par­ties are ramp­ing up their strate­gies to en­gage un­de­cid­ed vot­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly in cru­cial mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies.

In­sights from a Guardian Me­dia-com­mis­sioned poll, con­duct­ed by Pro­fes­sor Hamid Ghany, in­di­cate that the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), the ma­jor par­ties in the race, have sig­nif­i­cant work ahead to sway these in­flu­en­tial vot­ers. Par­ties al­ready un­der­stand that win­ning is not sole­ly about be­ing the loud­est but de­liv­er­ing the most com­pelling ar­gu­ments in crit­i­cal re­gions.

His­tor­i­cal da­ta from the last two gen­er­al elec­tions pro­vides valu­able in­sights for the par­ties, high­light­ing that they should con­cen­trate ef­forts in con­stituen­cies that have pre­vi­ous­ly record­ed nar­row vic­to­ry mar­gins.

The in­tri­cate de­tails of the elec­toral process are vi­tal to po­lit­i­cal strat­e­gy, as in­di­vid­ual polling di­vi­sions in key con­stituen­cies can in­flu­ence the over­all re­sults.

Amid the ca­coph­o­ny of mu­sic trucks, per­sis­tent ad­ver­tise­ments, and cam­paign events, the par­ty that ef­fec­tive­ly en­gages vot­ers in these mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies and or­gan­is­es and ex­e­cutes the best ground plan, in­clud­ing re­li­able trans­porta­tion to polling sta­tions on elec­tion day, is like­ly to suc­ceed.

Cam­paign strat­e­gy aside, it is im­per­a­tive for Trinidad and To­ba­go to pre­serve its rep­u­ta­tion as a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic coun­try where elec­tions are con­duct­ed freely, fair­ly, and with­out in­tim­i­da­tion.

We have al­ready seen trou­bling in­ci­dents dur­ing this elec­tion cam­paign, in­clud­ing threats against can­di­dates and the de­struc­tion of cam­paign ma­te­ri­als. Ob­servers from the Com­mon­wealth and Cari­com are mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion to af­firm to the world that we re­spect the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights of our cit­i­zens.

How­ev­er, it is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of po­lit­i­cal lead­ers to en­sure their sup­port­ers can en­dure the high­est lev­el of scruti­ny re­gard­ing their con­duct on polling day and in the days lead­ing up to it.

Our democ­ra­cy is at risk if we fail to up­hold these stan­dards.

To­ba­go is of par­tic­u­lar in­ter­est in this re­gard.

While the is­land has on­ly two of the 41 seats in Par­lia­ment, it is poised for one of the most in­tense elec­toral bat­tles in re­cent his­to­ry, with mul­ti­ple par­ties chal­leng­ing the in­cum­bent PNM, in­clud­ing the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots and the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty, which are in fierce com­pe­ti­tion with each oth­er.

Both par­ties are in­di­vid­u­al­ly bank­ing on win­ning the To­ba­go seats, in the hope of hav­ing enough ne­go­ti­at­ing pow­er and clout to dic­tate terms to the main po­lit­i­cal par­ties in Trinidad, in di­rect ben­e­fit to them­selves and the res­i­dents of the is­land.

While the un­fold­ing bat­tle is cap­ti­vat­ing, it is cru­cial for the is­land to main­tain its im­age of po­lit­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty.

With the up­com­ing open­ing of ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, the con­struc­tion of a sig­nif­i­cant ho­tel in Kil­gwyn Bay, and the po­ten­tial agree­ment with San­dals to es­tab­lish a high-end re­sort, To­ba­go is set for ma­jor tourism ad­vance­ment.

The is­land’s po­lit­i­cal di­vi­sions should, there­fore, be set­tled by vot­ing fin­gers on April 28 with­out any hos­til­i­ties for it to avoid neg­a­tive reper­cus­sions that could tar­nish its long­stand­ing sta­bil­i­ty.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, in both Trinidad and To­ba­go, we must be able to co­ex­ist peace­ful­ly af­ter the elec­tion in fur­ther­ance of our com­mon vi­sion - that is, for our coun­try’s con­tin­ued de­vel­op­ment and an im­proved stan­dard of liv­ing for all.