The masses of the people of Southside Belize City, those who are not closely connected with the leadership of the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP), see electoral politics as only a process whereby a few handouts sometimes become available, especially when elections are about to take place. Our democratic process is not viewed as an opportunity for communities to consult and organize, to present their issues and use the leverage of their votes to demand change and improvement. The vaunted universal adult suffrage introduced in 1954 has become cheapened over time to the point where the masses of the people see their vote as something to sell for money and short-term favors.
The gun violence which has been taking place amongst young boys and young men in the old capital for the last quarter century is a result of serious socio-economic problems in their neighborhoods. The gangs fight for turf, which is only another way of saying, they fight for crumbs. Those who survive and gather the crumbs soon end up having to fight for more crumbs because, as the system exists, the little money always goes to the private and public institutions, primarily businesses, schools, and the service utilities, which provide the wherewithal for marginal existence in the urban setting.
The ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) is very powerful in Belize City, especially on the Southside, where in 2012 voters elected all UDP area representatives – Barrow, Finnegan, Faber, Martinez, Longsworth and King for the six constituencies. The Northside constituency of Pickstock became partially Southside in composition in 2008, and has now elected a UDP area rep, Elrington, for the last two general elections, the first time in history. So that, the specific areas where the gun violence is taking place, represent the political stronghold of the ruling party. The UDP has swept the Belize City Council elections three times in a row – 2006, 2009, and 2012. How is it that it is precisely where the government is so strong that the people are so homicidal?
The Opposition People’s United Party (PUP) held two seats on the Southside from 1998 to 2012. When the PUP collapsed in the general election of 2008, these two constituencies, Lake Independence and Albert, remained PUP, electing Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat, respectively, for the third consecutive time.
The PUP ruling faction had promoted the attorney Dickie Bradley in Queen’s Square for both the 1998 and 2003 general elections. He lost both times to the UDP incumbent, Dean Barrow, but Bradley was a favorite of the PUP ruling faction and was awarded a powerful Cabinet Ministry, by way of the Senate, in 1998.
By 2003, it was becoming clear that neither Mark Espat or Cordel Hyde was a favorite of the PUP ruling faction, and by December 2004 they were both out of Cabinet. It was clear when the 2008 general election was held, that the PUP was going one way, while Espat and Hyde were going another. The popular vote showed that the people of the Southside endorsed the Espat and Hyde way. They were returned to office in 2008, when only four other PUP area representatives managed to defend their seats – Florencio Marin, Jr., in Corozal Southeast, John Briceño in Orange Walk Central, Said Musa in Fort George, and Francis Fonseca in Freetown.
In the 2012 general elections, neither Cordel Hyde or Mark Espat ran for the PUP in their constituencies, which both went UDP for the first time since 1993. In 2012, it may be said, the UDP won both Lake I and Albert by default: the PUP was not mounting an electoral challenge based on the popular will, but rather the PUP was representing special interests.
Cordel Hyde is returning to the PUP Lake I in time for national city and town council elections next March. As we understand it, PUP campaigners in Lake I demanded his return. In this case, it appears that the PUP decided to honor the popular will.
In the third paragraph of this essay we asked the question: how is it that it is precisely where the government is so strong that the people are so homicidal? In answer now, we would suggest to you that the UDP has become so dominant on the Southside because of PUP default. Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat were considered too close to Kremandala, and the PUP wanted to remain close to special interests which were hostile to Kremandala.
The general election of 2012 was unprecedented in its voting patterns, which showed a visible difference between Belize City/Belize District voting, where voters went UDP, and voting in the five other Districts – Toledo, Stann Creek, Cayo, Orange Walk and Corozal, whose voters went PUP. For true Belizean nationalists, this division between Belize City/Belize District and the other Districts was not any kind of welcome development in our young nation of Belize. Whereas the UDP leadership has been paying some attention to the Districts where they were weak in the 2012 generals, so far the PUP leadership has yet to address the Southside in the old capital, apart from the Cordel Hyde return.
To the best of our knowledge, the three-year period between the March 2012 general and city/town council elections, and the city/town elections scheduled for March 2015, is the longest such period in Belize’s modern political history without any general or municipal elections. For this reason, next year a burden of proof lies on the Opposition PUP leadership to consolidate the gains they made in 2012 and move forward smartly to the 2017 generals. The UDP perhaps has more of a comfort zone because, no matter the municipal results next year, they have, all things being equal, two more years in central government.