An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is in­ves­ti­gat­ing po­ten­tial threats aimed at dis­rupt­ing the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

This was re­vealed by act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day. He con­firmed that the au­thor­i­ties had re­ceived “cer­tain in­tel­li­gence” sug­gest­ing a pos­si­ble dis­rup­tion was be­ing planned.

Ben­jamin de­clined to dis­close fur­ther de­tails about the bomb­shell claim, stat­ing, “The in­tel­li­gence would lead us to be­lieve that things are afoot to dis­rupt the elec­toral process, and we are say­ing to all per­sons, and this in­cludes all par­ties as well, we want any­one seek­ing to dis­rupt the elec­toral process. We will take a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach in deal­ing with that.”

He warned, “The TTPS is tak­ing a ze­ro tol­er­ance, and I want to make that ab­solute­ly clear, a ze­ro tol­er­ance as it re­lates to per­sons who have any in­ten­tion to dis­rupt the elec­toral process.”

Ben­jamin de­scribed the warn­ings as a “Ri­ot Act” of sorts by the au­thor­i­ties, sig­nalling that they are ready to deal with any sit­u­a­tion that could arise.

Claim­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go is known for hold­ing fair and vi­o­lence-free elec­tions, he ex­pressed hope that this would con­tin­ue with the up­com­ing elec­tion next week.

But he stressed, “We will be tak­ing a ze­ro tol­er­ance to any­one, any group, any per­son who would seek to dis­rupt the peace and tran­quil­li­ty of T&T while the elec­tion is go­ing on or even any­thing lead­ing up to the elec­tion.”

Fo­cus­ing on law en­force­ment prepa­ra­tions with just days re­main­ing be­fore polling day, Ben­jamin not­ed that the nec­es­sary man­pow­er re­sources had al­ready been de­ployed in the lead-up. He added, “We want to ask all the par­ties to re­al­ly take some time and en­sure that per­sons who are part and par­cel of your con­tin­gent, that they stay with­in the giv­en guide­lines.”

Ben­jamin stat­ed, “Cer­tain things have been brought to our at­ten­tion, and we are say­ing, based on the things that have been brought to our at­ten­tion, that any­one that seeks to break the law as it re­lates to the elec­tions or any­thing deal­ing with the of­fences un­der the elec­tions, we are go­ing to deal with that de­ci­sive­ly.”

He added, “Be­cause we would re­al­ly be look­ing se­ri­ous­ly at per­sons who in­tend to break the law, and we will be tak­ing a ze­ro tol­er­ance in deal­ing with that.”

With po­lice of­fi­cers and sol­diers joint­ly as­signed to work both in the lead-up to the elec­tion and on elec­tion day it­self, the act­ing top cop said mo­bile and sta­t­ic pa­trols would be de­ployed to hotspot ar­eas, as well as oth­er lo­ca­tions where po­ten­tial dis­rup­tions are an­tic­i­pat­ed.

He as­sured the pub­lic that of­fi­cers were be­ing re­trained on how to de-es­ca­late con­fronta­tions.

Re­in­forc­ing the CoP’s sen­ti­ments, Gold Com­man­der for the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, Curt Si­mon, as­sured they were ready to man the over 3,000 polling sta­tions as list­ed by the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC).

Re­gard­ing pos­si­ble elec­tion of­fences, the act­ing Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP), Op­er­a­tions, out­lined that these in­clud­ed, but were not lim­it­ed to, the sale of al­co­hol be­tween 6 am and 6 pm on April 28; no con­gre­gat­ing with­in 100 me­tres of a polling sta­tion; the pro­hi­bi­tion of loud­speak­ers or mu­sic trucks dur­ing polling hours; re­frain­ing from ex­ert­ing any in­flu­ence on vot­ers to sup­port a par­tic­u­lar par­ty; avoid­ing il­le­gal vot­ing prac­tices; and not im­per­son­at­ing any elec­toral of­fi­cial.

Si­mon promised the au­thor­i­ties would be pay­ing ex­tra at­ten­tion to the head­quar­ters of all po­lit­i­cal par­ties at the close of the polls, as emo­tions are ex­pect­ed to run high as the re­sults are tal­lied and an­nounced.

De­spite the at­ten­tion be­ing paid to elec­tion prepa­ra­tions, Si­mon as­sured the TTPS’s com­mit­ment to fight­ing crime in the coun­try re­mained stead­fast and res­olute.

Chief of De­fence Staff Air Vice Mar­shal Dar­ryl Daniel said sol­diers were con­tin­u­ing to lend sup­port to the TTPS, just as they had been do­ing when the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed State of Emer­gency was ini­ti­at­ed.

Sinanan: That is a po­lice mat­ter

When con­tact­ed about re­ports that the po­lice were pur­su­ing cer­tain leads sug­gest­ing a pos­si­ble dis­rup­tion of the elec­tion, Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) cam­paign man­ag­er and Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan said he was not in a po­si­tion to com­ment.

“I am not au­tho­rised to com­ment on that,” he added

“That is a po­lice mat­ter and the po­lice will have their in­tel­li­gence. I would not be in a po­si­tion to com­ment on po­lice in­tel­li­gence.”

Calls to Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les and UNC Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Kirk Meighoo and in­cum­bent MP for Oropouche East Dr Roodal Mooni­lal went unan­swered.