The race for Tu­na­puna be­gan yes­ter­day, with Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress can­di­date David Nahkid out­pac­ing the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s Es­mond Forde to the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer’s of­fice at the El Do­ra­do Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre to file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers.

Ju­bi­lant cel­e­bra­tions on Nom­i­na­tion Day for one po­lit­i­cal par­ty were near­ly eclipsed over re­ports that a can­di­date had been re­placed af­ter al­le­ga­tions that a dark cloud was hang­ing over his head.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Win­ford James says Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s racial­ly-tinged at­tack against Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley will un­doubt­ed­ly have reper­cus­sions dur­ing the Gen­er­al Elec­tion cam­paign.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has ac­cused Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of wag­ing an­oth­er racial­ly-mo­ti­vat­ed cam­paign, af­ter the lat­ter ap­peared to at­tack his race yet again dur­ing a vir­tu­al meet­ing on Thurs­day night.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar SC is mak­ing it clear that Ravi Rati­ram re­mains the par­ty’s can­di­date for Cou­va North.

Chair­man of One To­ba­go Voice (OTV) steer­ing com­mit­tee, Ho­choy Charles, says OTV is back­ing the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) To­ba­go West can­di­date, Tashia Grace Bur­ris.

Jack Warn­er is back in T&T pol­i­tics and is ex­pect­ed to make his can­di­da­cy of­fi­cial lat­er on Fri­day af­ter­noon, as he shares why he chose to re­turn to the po­lit­i­cal are­na.

On the eve of Nom­i­na­tion Day, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress changed its mind and opt­ed for Rishi Tri­pathi in­stead of pre­vi­ous­ly an­nounced Ravi Rati­ram, to con­test the Cou­va North seat in the Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

The Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) has writ­ten to Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young seek­ing an ex­emp­tion for one of its prospec­tive can­di­dates stuck in the Unit­ed States.

Wat­son Duke’s Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) says it is tak­ing the gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign in To­ba­go to a new lev­el by of­fer­ing, for the first time, dri­ve-in cam­paign meet­ings.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who is pre­dict­ing her par­ty will win the Au­gust 10 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, has called for those from oth­er po­lit­i­cal sides who are fed up with the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment to unite to fight them in a Na­tion­al Ac­cord Ini­tia­tive.

The fam­i­ly mem­bers of Per­cy Thomas are adamant that their nephew Roger Mon­roe the PNM’s can­di­date for To­co/San­gre Grande has been telling half-truths to the me­dia.