As elec­tion day draws near, mon­ey is flow­ing faster than the cam­paign promis­es in this high-stakes show­down.

With 161 can­di­dates in the race and 17 po­lit­i­cal par­ties vy­ing for pow­er, the April 28 gen­er­al elec­tion is shap­ing up to be very ex­pen­sive—well be­yond the $8 mil­lion cap if every­one stuck to the $50,000 spend­ing lim­it.

Small­er par­ties are over­whelmed by the fi­nan­cial mus­cle of ma­jor par­ties like the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC).