A group of con­trac­tors have lost their bid to have a con­tro­ver­sial law­suit over con­tracts award­ed in the run-up to the 2015 Gen­er­al Elec­tion dis­missed at a pre­lim­i­nary stage.

For­mer prime min­is­ter, now Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, says pay­ments made to her by her for­mer spe­cial ad­vi­sor Bar­ry Padarath were for of­fi­cial busi­ness trans­act­ed dur­ing an of­fi­cial trip in 2014. Guardian Me­dia sent the fol­low­ing ques­tions re­gard­ing the cheque pay­ments is­sued to Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Fol­low­ing are the ques­tions and re­spons­es.

Promis­es of a more vi­able agri­cul­ture sec­tor by both the PNM and the UNC have been out­lined in their re­spec­tive man­i­festos with each al­so vow­ing to re­duce the coun­try’s food im­port bill amount­ing to ap­prox­i­mate­ly $6 bil­lion an­nu­al­ly.

That was the roar from Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment leader Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley last night as he ac­cused Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of abus­ing black peo­ple “in the most dis­gust­ing and dis­grace­ful way”.

Des­per­a­tion is show­ing on the part of the Op­po­si­tion UNC with that par­ty’s last-minute give­aways of fridges, stoves and oth­er items, says PNM Ari­ma can­di­date Pen­ny Beck­les.

Two days af­ter 12 Venezue­lan na­tion­als were ar­rest­ed in Pa­lo Seco, an­oth­er Venezue­lan na­tion­al has been ar­rest­ed with guns and am­mu­ni­tion in Granville, Ce­dros.

A his­toric piece of the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en has been re­turned to its orig­i­nal glo­ry, Mille Fleurs, 116 years af­ter it was ini­tial­ly con­struct­ed. And while stand­ing a tes­ta­ment to his­to­ry, it would al­so hope to guide the way for­ward as it would now house the Na­tion­al Trust, non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions, and host cul­tur­al events.

For­mer Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has re­quest­ed a copy of the judge­ment made by High Court Judge James Aboud in the mat­ter in­volv­ing the Es­tate Man­age­ment and Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd (EM­BD) and a group of con­trac­tors.

To­ba­go busi­ness­woman Di­ane Hadad is warn­ing the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) that its con­tin­ued us­age of a video clip with her dis­cussing To­ba­go is­sues will re­sult in le­gal ac­tion against the par­ty.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the gov­ern­ment has al­lowed COVID-19 to en­ter this coun­try through the “back door,” and has ac­cused them of at­tempt­ing to use the pan­dem­ic to score po­lit­i­cal points.

Vot­ers in the Tu­na­puna con­stituen­cy con­sid­er the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) the par­ty best ca­pa­ble of solv­ing their prob­lems, ac­cord­ing to a re­cent HHB and As­so­ciates Ltd poll led by poll­ster Louis Bertrand.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) can­di­date for La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro Jear­lean John has lam­bast­ed the Prime Min­is­ter and Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), Dr Kei­th Row­ley, for ac­cus­ing her of try­ing to bribe res­i­dents of the area for votes.