PM: SoE regulations focus on public safety

Chester Sam­bra­no

Lead Ed­i­tor-News­gath­er­ing

chester.sam­bra­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing the cur­rent State of Emer­gency (SoE) dif­fer from those im­ple­ment­ed dur­ing the 2024 State of Emer­gency un­der the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in how they ad­dress free­dom of ex­pres­sion and pub­lic safe­ty.

In a mes­sage yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­ferred to pro­vi­sions in the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions used dur­ing the 2024 State of Emer­gency, specif­i­cal­ly Reg­u­la­tion 12, which said no per­son shall en­deav­our, whether oral­ly or oth­er­wise, to in­flu­ence pub­lic opin­ion in a man­ner like­ly to be prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty and or­der, or do any act or pos­sess any ar­ti­cle with a view to mak­ing or fa­cil­i­tat­ing such an en­deav­our.

She said the then gov­ern­ment faced a con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge over the pro­vi­sion.

Ac­cord­ing to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, the ad­min­is­tra­tion lat­er amend­ed the reg­u­la­tions three months lat­er to re­move ref­er­ences to “pub­lic or­der.”

She said the Emer­gency Pow­ers (Amend­ment) (No 2) Reg­u­la­tions, 2025 were signed by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo on March 21, 2025, elim­i­nat­ing the phrase “pub­lic or­der” from Reg­u­la­tion 12(a) of the sched­ule.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the “pub­lic or­der” pro­vi­sion had been over­ly broad and un­con­sti­tu­tion­al, rais­ing con­cerns it could sup­press free­dom of speech, as­sem­bly and po­lit­i­cal ex­pres­sion.

She con­trast­ed that pro­vi­sion with the reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing the cur­rent State of Emer­gency in 2026.

Un­der Reg­u­la­tion 11, no per­son shall en­deav­our, whether oral­ly or oth­er­wise, to in­flu­ence pub­lic opin­ion in a man­ner like­ly to be prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty, or do any act or pos­sess any ar­ti­cle with a view to mak­ing or fa­cil­i­tat­ing such an en­deav­our.

She said the cur­rent pro­vi­sion fo­cus­es specif­i­cal­ly on threats to pub­lic safe­ty.

She al­so re­ferred to a pub­lic meet­ing held by the op­po­si­tion on Fri­day, where mem­bers of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment crit­i­cised the SoE and raised con­cerns about in­ter­fer­ence with free­dom of speech, as­sem­bly and ex­pres­sion.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said speak­ers at that meet­ing ac­knowl­edged that the cur­rent SoE reg­u­la­tions pub­lished so far do not in­ter­fere with the right to free­dom of ex­pres­sion.

She al­so crit­i­cised state­ments made at the event re­gard­ing crime and gov­er­nance.

“The haters, trolls, doom scrollers, red couch alum­ni and my PNM fans who are self-gaslight­ing re­gard­ing the SoE 2026 reg­u­la­tions as a way to cope with my ab­sence, need not wor­ry or melt­down. Your lov­ing Prime Min­is­ter will re­turn soon,” she said.