BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 5, 2015–At a press conference held at their headquarters on Queen Street, Belize City, this evening, the Opposition People’s United Party issued a press release in which it claimed that “the indiscriminate and wholesale use of PetroCaribe monies, intended for development purposes” was used “to fund the UDP Government’s vote-buying countrywide.”

It is a very serious allegation and one which United Democratic Party leader Dean Barrow says is false. He rejected out of hand any allegations of vote-buying, adding that he had “not seen any case of flagrant vote buying” during yesterday’s municipal elections.
Barrow admitted that “the UDP is more given to riches than the PUP,” but disputes assertions that funds were stolen from government’s coffers to finance election spending.

He told us that the funds which financed the UDP’s campaign for the elections came from the business financiers to whom they go for help, people who he said believe in the UDP and the work they are doing.

This time around, Barrow suggested, there may have been little if any financing from British billionaire Michael Ashcroft to the Opposition, although Ashcroft was incidentally visible in Belize right before nomination day and again a few days before election day.

Barrow said that Ashcroft had made it clear that he didn’t think that too much importance ought to be attached to the municipal elections, but that a great deal will be invested in the general elections to try to unseat the UDP.

“I sincerely believe that people are pleased with the efforts of the Government at bettering their lives,” said Barrow, pointing to the infrastructure work and the physical transformation which he said is hard to miss and hard to deny. He also pointed to “the things we do by way of computer tablets to tertiary level students,” paying for CXCs, the December mortgage and the expansion of social programs, as well as another $10 mil being inputted in the National Bank so that people can access mortgage loans.

“All these things, I feel, have helped to convince people that government is for real in trying to work on deliverables for the people, and I think that that is what allowed us to be able to do well yesterday,” said Barrow.

He also said that the party also presented some high caliber candidates. He spoke highly of Fern Gutierrez, the first female mayor of Punta Gorda, who emerged victorious in Wednesday’s vote.

“Fern Gutierrez is a first-rate lady, and if you listen to her speak and you look at the way she carries herself and examine her track record, you will know that she has such merit, so many excellent qualities about her that no doubt that contributed to her victory,” said Barrow.

He also spoke highly of Dangriga mayor, Francis Humphreys, who he said is a longstanding educator and historian of international repute and somebody who has been a leader in Dangriga for years. The UDP won back these two southern municipalities from the PUP, winning all 7 seats.

Although the UDP’s councilor candidates lost in the Freetown Division in Belize City, Barrow praised Dr. Carla Barnett, who he said will be endorsed as the standard bearer for the Freetown Division next week, to challenge Opposition Leader Francis Fonseca.

Barrow said that Barnett had been working very hard with Lee Mark Chang, the former standard bearer for the UDP in Freetown, to narrow the PUP’s margin of victory. He said that the UDP, whose mayoral candidate beat the PUP’s mayoral candidate in Freetown, has “better than a fighting chance” at winning Freetown in the general election, due in 2017.

As for the UDP’s total defeat in Lake I, Barrow said that it was a defeat that he did not expect, because the current UDP area representative, Mark King, had put in “tremendous work” to win that division.

“Cordel Hyde’s return to Lake I must have played a huge role,” he said.

Despite these shortfalls in some parts of the City, the UDP won all seats in Belize City, while it lost Orange Walk, but split votes in that division helped to ensure the UDP two seats on that council, which had been fully controlled by the PUP during its last term.

Barrow said that just as he is prepared to concede that Francis Fonseca would have neglected his division because of his larger duties as party leader, he would similarly say that Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega, UDP area representative for Orange Walk North, did not spend a great deal of time campaigning in Otro Benque but channeled a lot of energy in working the territory of former Opposition Leader Johnny Briceño in Orange Walk Central.

Barrow said that they had expected a sizeable margin in places like Otro Benque to more than offset any losses the UDP would have faced in other parts of Orange Walk. He conceded that Briceño’s strength in Orange Walk Central “was a factor that ultimately we did not overcome…”

Barrow, who conceded that people have been saying that general elections (due in 2017) will be held within the next three months, told us that he is not prepared to call early elections. He said that they don’t want anybody to get the sense that the UDP will become cocky, and they don’t want anyone to feel that the UDP would kick the PUP when they are down.

He also said that voters who have supported them have a right to expect that the government will show them that they did the correct thing by giving them the vote, that the government will reward them by chartering and financing a program of works in their municipalities so that they can see that the UDP is faithful to its commitment. He said the UDP had promised voters that if they voted for the UDP, they could be guaranteed that the collaboration between their municipalities and Central Government would pay dividends for that municipality.

“We need time. We can’t show them the results of their decision in a couple of months,” Barrow added.