Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr. Shane Mo­hammed has de­scribed the re­cent de­c­la­ra­tion of a State of Emer­gency (SoE) as an “act of des­per­a­tion” by a prime min­is­ter fac­ing mount­ing po­lit­i­cal and so­cial pres­sures.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day, Dr Mo­hammed crit­i­cized the tim­ing and ex­e­cu­tion of the SoE, sug­gest­ing it was a rushed re­sponse to es­ca­lat­ing crime.

“This is the ac­tion of a prime min­is­ter star­ing down a dark tun­nel, con­front­ed by the prospect of an elec­tion he may not win,” Mo­hammed as­sert­ed.

He not­ed that the de­c­la­ra­tion val­i­dates long-stand­ing calls from var­i­ous sec­tors of so­ci­ety, in­clud­ing op­po­si­tion lead­ers and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, for de­ci­sive mea­sures against ris­ing crime.

For months, the op­po­si­tion has ad­vo­cat­ed for ur­gent in­ter­ven­tion, cit­ing the con­sis­tent uptick in vi­o­lent crime. How­ev­er, Mo­hammed ac­cused the gov­ern­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly the prime min­is­ter and the min­is­ter of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, of ig­nor­ing these calls and dis­miss­ing con­cerns with “dic­ta­to­r­i­al rhetoric.”

“Our coun­try is now ev­i­dent­ly dic­tat­ed by crim­i­nal el­e­ments and dark forces,” Mo­hammed said, de­scrib­ing the move as “too lit­tle, too late.” He ref­er­enced the gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to act ear­li­er, de­spite the wors­en­ing crime sit­u­a­tion that has cap­tured the na­tion’s at­ten­tion.

Mo­hammed al­so crit­i­cized the tim­ing of the SoE, im­ple­ment­ed just be­fore the new year cel­e­bra­tions. “This an­nounce­ment dis­rupts plans for fam­i­lies, friends, and church com­mu­ni­ties prepar­ing to wel­come the new year,” he said. “A de­c­la­ra­tion with­out im­me­di­ate and de­tailed com­mu­ni­ca­tion reeks of a hasty at­tempt to ad­dress the af­ter­math of a bloody pre-Christ­mas pe­ri­od.”