There will be a four-way bat­tle for the seat of Hin­dus­tan/St Mary’s and a three-way fight for the Hol­ly­wood seat among the five by-elec­tions tak­ing place on Jan­u­ary 5.

The elec­toral dis­trict of Hol­ly­wood in Point Fortin has been un­der the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) rep­re­sen­ta­tion for more than two decades, how­ev­er op­pos­ing forces be­lieve that will change on Jan­u­ary 25 as the par­ty se­lect­ed the wrong man for the job.

The bat­tle is on for the seat of Cunu­pia on the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion. Can­di­dates Rasheed “Patos” Ali (PNM) and Richard Sukdeo (UNC) filed their nom­i­na­tion pa­pers on Mon­day at the of­fice of the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer at the South­ern Main Road, Cunu­pia.

A cou­ple’s ex­cite­ment and hap­pi­ness of start­ing the new year with their new bun­dle of joy were shat­tered on Sat­ur­day when the ba­by was de­liv­ered still­born at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Can­di­dates for five Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­toral dis­tricts, in­clud­ing Morne Co­co/Alyce Glen, filed their nom­i­na­tions yes­ter­day ahead of by-elec­tions to be held lat­er this month.

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) To­ba­go Coun­cil for­mer Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer and coun­cil­lor Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus’ fil­ing of nom­i­na­tion pa­pers as an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date for Jan­u­ary 25, 2021, To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly(THA) elec­tions, vi­o­lates the PNM con­sti­tu­tion and she will be ex­pelled.

Ush­ered in by a mu­sic truck and flanked by sev­er­al Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment stal­warts, Dr Janet Hi­lary Bernard en­tered the La Hor­quet­ta Re­gion­al Com­plex yes­ter­day to file her nom­i­na­tion pa­pers.

The Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots is pre­dict­ing vic­to­ry in the up­com­ing To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions. The elec­tions, which are sched­uled for Jan­u­ary 25, will see the par­ty pre­sent­ing 12 can­di­dates for se­lec­tion by the To­ba­go elec­torate. Af­ter fil­ing nom­i­na­tion pa­pers yes­ter­day, Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine said his team is ready to trans­form To­ba­go’s de­vel­op­ment.

 RBC in Toron­to, Cana­da has con­firmed that its Mar­aval Branch ATMs were van­dalised this week­end and added that the po­lice are con­tin­u­ing their in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the $1.3 mil­lion heist.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley kicked off the first of­fi­cial work­day of the new year with a wide-rang­ing in­ter­view in To­ba­go where he ad­dressed a num­ber of is­sues on the is­land.

An in­trud­er was killed, al­leged­ly with his own gun, dur­ing a home in­va­sion by the own­er of the prop­er­ty dur­ing the wee hours of Mon­day morn­ing.

Two Trinida­di­an au­thors have claimed vic­to­ry at the Cos­ta Book Awards. The award is recog­nised as one of the UK's most pres­ti­gious and pop­u­lar book prizes.