RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

& GAIL ALEXAN­DER

Chief Elec­tions Of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis has re­vealed that 1,154,708 peo­ple are reg­is­tered to vote for the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion on April 28, based on a pre­lim­i­nary elec­toral list­ing.

This rep­re­sents an in­crease of over 20,000 peo­ple, as a to­tal of 1,134,135 peo­ple were reg­is­tered to vote in the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion.

As Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) field of­fi­cers con­tin­ue to work to ver­i­fy da­ta, in­clud­ing ad­dress­es over the next few weeks, Nar­cis said there seems to be a high­er in­ter­est in vot­er reg­is­tra­tion this year, when com­pared to pre­vi­ous years.

“I can con­firm a high­er vol­ume of traf­fic with­in our of­fices than in pre­vi­ous elec­toral reg­is­tra­tion pe­ri­ods,” she said.

The elec­toral reg­is­tra­tion for the 2025 elec­tion closed yes­ter­day.

A source re­vealed that 132 peo­ple vis­it­ed the San Fer­nan­do Reg­is­tra­tion Area of­fice on Thurs­day for trans­ac­tions such as ad­dress changes, elec­toral list checks, re­newals, and name changes. That process con­tin­ued yes­ter­day.

Among per­sons seek­ing to ver­i­fy their in­for­ma­tion was Maris­sa Far­num, from San Fer­nan­do East, who is vot­ing for the first time.

“To­day is the last day and I am mak­ing sure I am reg­is­tered to vote. I am go­ing to vote for my chil­dren’s fu­ture. My el­dest son is in uni­ver­si­ty, and the way things are go­ing, I want a change be­cause crime is just too high,” she said.

She added, “This coun­try is in dire straits and this is why I am mak­ing sure I am vot­ing this year. It will be the first time I am vot­ing.”

Em­manuel Thomp­son, from San Fer­nan­do West, al­so said he want­ed to en­sure he could vote in the up­com­ing elec­tions.

“We want to make sure our ad­dress­es are prop­er. This is the grand­moth­er of elec­tions and all votes must be count­ed. I will be vot­ing in the San Fer­nan­do West area. The mo­men­tum is nice. Every­thing is look­ing good on the ground and I am ready to make my de­ci­sion,” Thomp­son said.

Mean­while, David Kan­ga­loo, of Mara­bel­la, em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of par­tic­i­pa­tion.

“Every­one has a role to play in par­tic­i­pat­ing in elec­tions and de­ter­min­ing the fu­ture of the coun­try. Peo­ple com­plain about every­thing but they’re not vot­ing. We want to make Trinidad a bet­ter place and de­vel­op the coun­try, so par­tic­i­pate in the vot­ing process,” he added.

Ja­mal Hinds praised the EBC staff for their ef­fi­cient han­dling of trans­ac­tions.

“I came here on Thurs­day and I for­got to walk with my bill so I came back to­day. Every­thing is go­ing smooth­ly. I am try­ing to rush and get this done be­cause I want to vote,” Hinds said.

Sev­er­al el­der­ly cit­i­zens al­so vis­it­ed the of­fice to check their names on the elec­toral list and re­new their iden­ti­fi­ca­tion cards for the elec­tion. EBC field of­fi­cers are con­tin­u­ing to ver­i­fy ad­dress­es to en­sure no dis­crep­an­cies on elec­tion day.

Mean­while, the of­fices for Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment are be­ing de-op­er­a­tionalised and the Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour has urged po­lit­i­cal par­ties to avoid char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion and crit­i­cis­ing the pri­vate lives of can­di­dates and their fam­i­lies.

Both de­vel­op­ments arose yes­ter­day as elec­tion ac­tiv­i­ties in­ten­si­fied to­wards Nom­i­na­tion Day next Fri­day. That is when all elec­tion can­di­dates will present their doc­u­ments to EBC re­turn­ing of­fi­cers for ap­proval to con­test the elec­tion.

It was con­firmed yes­ter­day by var­i­ous MPs that their re­spec­tive con­stituen­cy of­fices were de-op­er­a­tionalised in re­cent days pend­ing the elec­tion and swear­ing-in of MPs for the 41 con­stituen­cies. It was al­so con­firmed by of­fi­cials and Par­lia­ment sources.

Among MPs con­firm­ing this was out­go­ing Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, who said the three of­fices for the MP in Ma­yaro, Biche and Rio Claro were de-op­er­a­tionalised.

He said, “Con­se­quent­ly, all ser­vices of­fered by these of­fices have been im­me­di­ate­ly ter­mi­nat­ed. Con­stituents with sched­uled ap­point­ments or pend­ing doc­u­ments re­lat­ed to state grants and sup­port ap­pli­ca­tions are ad­vised to re-ap­ply once the new par­lia­men­tary ses­sion com­mences.”

Paray stat­ed, “It has been an im­mense priv­i­lege and pro­found ho­n­our to serve the pa­tri­ot­ic and re­silient peo­ple of the Ma­yaro con­stituen­cy for the past decade. To­geth­er, we’ve fos­tered mean­ing­ful change ... Let’s fin­ish what we start­ed—to­geth­er, let’s com­plete our mis­sion for a brighter, stronger Ma­yaro con­stituen­cy.”

Be­hav­iour Coun­cil: No com­plaints re­ceived so far

Mean­while, the Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour says since the start of mon­i­tor­ing par­ties, no for­mal com­plaints of pos­si­ble vi­o­la­tions to the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct were re­ceived.

A re­lease from coun­cil sec­re­tary Leela Ramdeen added, “In­di­vid­ual mem­bers of coun­cil were, how­ev­er, ad­vised that, pri­mar­i­ly on so­cial me­dia, there have been var­i­ous at­tempts to ei­ther mis­rep­re­sent par­ties or can­di­dates.

“As pre­vi­ous­ly stat­ed, the coun­cil does not have the ca­pac­i­ty to mon­i­tor all as­pects of so­cial me­dia and thus de­pends on cit­i­zens to share with the coun­cil such spe­cif­ic in­for­ma­tion which may be be­lieved to be in vi­o­la­tion of the code.

“We again call on all mem­bers of the pub­lic to col­lab­o­rate with the coun­cil by sub­mit­ting re­ports of pos­si­ble vi­o­la­tions to the code. Such com­plaints can be made through a mes­sage to What­sApp 793 4505 or via email to in­fo@po­lit­i­calethic­stt.org.”