An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Se­nior of­fi­cials of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) have been ac­tive­ly im­ple­ment­ing a se­cu­ri­ty frame­work ahead of the up­com­ing Gen­er­al Elec­tion on April 28.

A meet­ing was held on Mon­day with al­most all cam­paign man­agers for the po­lit­i­cal par­ties con­test­ing the polls. This fol­lowed sim­i­lar dis­cus­sions with the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC), as well as ex­ter­nal se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies.

This was re­vealed by Gold Com­man­der for the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, act­ing Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Op­er­a­tions, Curt Si­mon, yes­ter­day. He em­pha­sised how crit­i­cal it was to have clear strate­gies in place.

“It was in­cum­bent up­on us to speak with the cam­paign man­agers about what it is we ex­pect of them, and we did that yes­ter­day (Mon­day).”

He added, “We made cer­tain re­quests of them. To re­mind them to be very re­spect­ful. To ex­hib­it dig­ni­ty, one to­wards the oth­er. To avoid cer­tain rhetoric on the po­lit­i­cal plat­form and, of course, to ex­ert the in­flu­ence that they have on the pop­u­lace.”

He said they alert­ed all present about elec­tion-type of­fences that “can be com­mit­ted when per­sons be­come ex­cit­ed and ex­citable.”

Si­mon added, “We have al­so spo­ken to them about the use of loud­speak­ers on trucks and oth­er places. We have al­so spo­ken to them about demon­strat­ing that re­spect to one an­oth­er and not de­fac­ing things that one may put up.”

In­di­cat­ing that the TTPS was in­ves­ti­gat­ing com­plaints which in­clud­ed the de­struc­tion of at least two bill­boards of re­spec­tive can­di­dates, Si­mon said, “We are re­spond­ing to that.”

He urged peo­ple to let good sense pre­vail and main­tain a deco­rum be­fit­ting those seek­ing pub­lic of­fice.

De­clar­ing that T&T has en­joyed a rich his­to­ry of peace­ful elec­tions, Si­mon said the au­thor­i­ties were ad­e­quate­ly pre­pared to pro­vide what was re­quired in terms of man­pow­er re­sources in the run-up to and on the day of the elec­tion.