P.U.P. says U.D.P. planned to spend big on U.S. consultant

At its press conference this morning the P.U.P. also turned its attention to a matter first raised on this newscast on Monday: that is the use of outside political consultants. Producing what he said was an unsigned contract between Manuel Esquivel and the U.S. political consulting firm of Laszlo and Associates, the P.U.P.’s Godfrey Smith, said that the proposed deal was one more example of the U.D.P.’s willingness to do anything and pay any price to win the elections. According to the document, the U.D.P. was to pay the consultants one hundred and ninety thousand U.S. dollars for their services plus a thirty thousand dollar bonus if the party won the election. Smith also alleged that one of the firm’s principals, Jennifer Laszlo, last week visited P.U.P. headquarters in the guise of a journalist, and after being questioned regarding her credentials hurriedly left the office, leaving the unsigned document behind in her haste. Despite the suspiciously fortuitous circumstances under which the document came into the P.U.P.’s hands, Ms. Laszlo, in a phone conversation with News Five, did not deny allegations that she had offered her services to the U.D.P. For its part the U.D.P. claims, through Secretary General Kenworth Tillett, that her offer was never seriously entertained and that in any case no agreement was ever made, nor any contract signed.