JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Repórter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice have ar­rest­ed a man with $30,000 in his pos­ses­sion in the St Joseph/Aran­juez con­stituen­cy, af­ter re­ports that he was of­fer­ing mon­ey for votes. 

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands po­lice searched the man’s ve­hi­cle and found no po­lit­i­cal para­pher­na­lia in it. 

The ar­rest comes al­most a week af­ter the PNM’s can­di­date for the area, Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, said there were men in his con­stituen­cy of­fer­ing drugs, mon­ey and am­mu­ni­tion for votes. 

In a video post­ed on so­cial me­dia, Deyals­ingh said:

“Young men of Aran­juez/St Joseph, specif­i­cal­ly the young men, your fu­ture is in your hands, and the coun­try’s fu­ture lies in your hands. There are two black pick-ups dri­ving through the con­stituen­cy and in those two black pick-ups they are bring­ing bags of mon­ey. They are bring­ing weed, Hen­nessey and bul­lets. I want to ask the young men of this coun­try—and Aran­juez/St Joseph in par­tic­u­lar—is it worth it? Rude Boy, are you go­ing to sell your soul and the soul of this coun­try for Rude Boy, gan­ja, $5,000?”

In a so­cial me­dia post last week, the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) warned that any­one found guilty of brib­ing or oth­er­wise in­flu­enc­ing vot­ers faces im­pris­on­ment for six months or a $15,000 fine on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion, or 12 months or a $30,000 fine on in­dict­ment.