Bat­tle con­tin­ued in both Hous­es of Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day on se­cu­ri­ty of na­tion­al is­sues - de­spite Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ab­sence from the Low­er House, and an­swer­ing her as­signed ques­tions.

Sen­ate de­bate con­tin­ued on Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Zones se­cu­ri­ty plan. Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der’s Thurs­day state­ment that Gov­ern­ment was al­ready prepar­ing to de­clare zones, sig­nalled con­fi­dence that de­spite pub­lic con­cerns, pro­posed leg­is­la­tion would be passed when the Sen­ate re­sumes on Tues­day.

If Gov­ern­ment’s prepa­ra­tions are for­ward-think­ing - for sur­prise am­bush of cul­prits - the gam­ble’s on for the in­tim­i­da­tion fac­tor of sub­ject­ing sep­a­rat­ed “hotspot” ar­eas to se­cu­ri­ty forces’ at­ten­tion, as op­posed to cul­prits’ can­ny in­stincts, con­nec­tions and lo­ca­tion change pen­chant.

With Gov­ern­ment seek­ing to pre­vent a crim­i­nal back­lash surge of post-State of Emer­gency (SoE) “busi­ness” and con­tin­ue curb­ing mur­ders, pub­lic con­cerns re­main on zones, which will em­ploy un­used SoE as­pects - cur­fews and cor­dons. This means in­con­ve­nience for law-abid­ing res­i­dents’ op­er­a­tions. Sup­pres­sion of rights, in­clud­ing protest. Im­pact of stig­ma­tis­ing “zone” res­i­dents. Busi­ness­es’ eco­nom­ic toll. Rent­ing/sell­ing de­val­ued zone prop­er­ty.

Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials said an en­tire con­stituen­cy won’t have to be zoned if cer­tain ar­eas have is­sues that re­quire zon­ing; and this may be in “small ar­eas of not more than a mile ra­dius based on in­ter­na­tion­al best prac­tices.”

Gov­ern­ment’s cred­i­bil­i­ty will re­quire net­ting king­pins rather than cor­ner limers and how the sys­tem op­er­ates to yield more than the tem­po­rary crime-fight­ing mea­sure it’s per­ceived as.

Amid Gov­ern­ment’s claim of the low­est mur­der rate in his­to­ry in 2025 - af­ter the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) SoE and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) own - Thurs­day’s re­ports put the 2026 mur­der toll un­der the UNC’s six-month SoE at 29. The toll for the same Jan­u­ary pe­ri­od in 2025 was 21 un­der the PNM’s SoE, which was the first pe­ri­od of its three-month span then.

Zones test - for com­mu­ni­ties, se­cu­ri­ty forces, sys­tems - is the Gov­ern­ment’s lat­est chal­lenge re­ceiv­ing pub­lic side-eye, af­ter se­vere job loss­es and mon­ey-de­mand­ed de­vel­op­ments in­sti­tut­ed in its short term.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s heap­ing pot­spoon­fuls of vit­ri­ol ac­com­pa­ny­ing zones “med­i­cine” hasn’t sweet­ened the taste. At best, her at­tack on In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors and the Pres­i­dent is be­ing seen as lat­est proof of her lead­er­ship skills, as op­posed to the pre-elec­tion pic­ture. At worst, she’s seen as try­ing to por­tray and bring to life her own claimed opin­ion of the PNM’s pre­vi­ous leader: bul­ly, du­plic­i­tous, dic­ta­tor, di­vi­sive and in­tim­i­dat­ing.

Whether le­gal coun­ters arise from the UNC’s lat­est tar­gets - il­le­gal mi­grants un­der a new reg­is­tra­tion process, which will draw out those for de­por­ta­tion - it’s ahead if this al­so fu­els a big­ger “un­der­ground” sec­tor.

Tot­ing a toll-bur­dened im­age and poor com­mu­ni­ca­tion, dam­age con­trol arose with a re­turn to UNC’s Op­po­si­tion-days for­mat of Sun­day and Wednes­day me­dia brief­in­gs. But us­ing par­ty HQ - and PRO - to ex­pound on na­tion­al mat­ters af­fect­ing all of T&T, jarred speak­ers’ cred­i­bil­i­ty as Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters, and sig­nalled con­tempt for non-par­ty mem­bers.

Ground out­reach and im­age boost­ing’s al­so been sought via Gov­ern­ment’s leg­isla­tive agen­da - with peo­ple-cen­tred plans - and Paria Fu­el pipeline tragedy vic­tims’ $1m ex-gra­tia pay­out, co-opt­ing use of PNM En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young’s $1m plan for the fam­i­lies. Pro­posed labour laws have prompt­ed spec­u­la­tion that the grim eco­nom­ic land­scape’s be­ing pre­pared for fur­ther un­em­ploy­ment. Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo’s re­sults from his over­seas trip are await­ed. As is the 2026 Bud­get promise of Pri­vate Pen­sion Tax ex­emp­tion law.

As the Op­po­si­tion PNM cel­e­brates 70 years, to­day’s first Gen­er­al Coun­cil for 2026 is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive a re­port from the To­ba­go’ Coun­cil on the re­cent To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions.

Af­ter Wednes­day’s To­ba­go Coun­cil meet­ing, mem­bers told Guardian Me­dia that leader An­cil Den­nis’s pro­pos­al for March lead­er­ship/ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion and will­ing­ness to as­sist in the tran­si­tion, was re­ject­ed in favour of elec­tion by the April 22 con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due date. “...Tak­ing our time to choose lead­er­ship, rather than rush.”

A post-Car­ni­val Coun­cil meet­ing is ex­pect­ed to be­gin prepa­ra­tions, in­clud­ing an elec­tion su­per­vi­so­ry team and March nom­i­na­tions. They said whether Den­nis leaves now or re­mains un­til April is ir­rel­e­vant, since the team can helm op­er­a­tions. Two ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers have sub­mit­ted res­ig­na­tions. Heat al­so arose on To­ba­go East’s al­leged with­draw­al of en­thu­si­asm in the elec­tion, stem­ming from de­ci­sion-mak­ing con­cerns, oth­ers said.

The Gen­er­al Coun­cil’s al­so ex­pect­ed to field con­cerns from some on Ari­ma May­or Bal­li­ram Ma­haraj’s at­ten­dance at UNC’s Christ­mas par­ty and not his cor­po­ra­tion’s own.