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Zenaida and Finnegan kick a – – !

GeneralZenaida and Finnegan kick a - - !
Yesterday, the Belize City Center was the staging ground for a historic municipal election convention, unlike any other convention that Belize City has seen in recent times, as a divided ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) marched out its supporters across the city to elect a mayoral candidate and ten city council candidates for the March 2009, Belize City Council elections.
 
Thousands of Belize City residents descended on the City Center as the incumbent Mayor, Zenaida Moya, faced off with her deputy, Anthony Michael.
 
Sunday’s voting came after several weeks of a very acrimonious campaign against Moya, who has been accused of corruption and mismanagement at City Hall.
 
But by the time the dust was settled a full twenty-four hours after the polls opened, the incumbent, Zenaida Moya, had crushed the hopes of her challenger to emerge as the UDP’s mayoral candidate for Belize City. Several sitting councilors, who had abandoned Moya in preference for Michael, were left in the cold, as newcomers stripped half of them of their place on the party’s slate.
 
In all, 34 candidates, a record number, offered themselves for councilors, 8 of them incumbents. We have been told that almost 7,000 voters braved the bad weather to cast their votes.
 
Yesterday’s convention was also historic because, for the first time a person of Chinese origin has been elected to be a candidate – this at a time when the Chinese population of Belize City has emerged with enormous economic influence.
 
Eric Chang not only received the second highest vote count, but his election to the UDP’s slate has ushered in a new era in the electoral politics of Belize City.        
 
The City Center’s voting areas remained crowded with voters for the entire day – from 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. – well past the close of the polls. Voters poured in from all 10 Belize City constituencies. Supporters from outside the city were also visible in the massive sea of red T-shirts.
 
The challenger for the mayor’s position on the party’s ticket, Anthony Michael, had the backing of some senior UDP officials and ranking Cabinet members, including Works Minister Anthony “Boots” Martinez and Education Minister Patrick Faber, who had publicly declared their support for Michael.
 
In Mayor Moya’s corner, there were Housing Minister Michael Finnegan and Minister of State in Works, Edmond “Clear the Land” Castro.
 
From the early hours of the convention, Zenaida’s impact was clearly visible, as hordes of her campaign workers, dressed in her T-shirts with the campaign slogan “Powered by the people,” were overwhelmingly present on the grounds — and always, they appeared to be on the move, shuttling voters back and forth.
 
Zenaida herself was perched on the higher steps of the Civic Center, where she remained for the entire voting period greeting her supporters as they ascended the steps to cast their votes.
 
The mayor of Belmopan, Simeon Lopez, traveled all the way from Belmopan with a contingent of supporters for Mayor Moya. Lopez said that he was very confident that Moya could pull off a victory.
 
When asked about her chances of winning, Moya declared that she was very confident that she could win. “I feel very confident. My people are in full swing. They are doing their thing and I am very proud of everyone.”
 
Asked if the voters elected a mixed slate of council candidates, how she would feel working with such a team, given her experience with the present set of city councilors, who literally turned on her, she said:
 
I feel very confident that we will have a very good team, and I will work fully with any councilor who is elected.”
 
When the present council was sworn in some two and a half years ago, the ten city councilors and Mayor Moya appeared to have been a match made in political heaven, the then Opposition’s wilderness years from City Hall appearing to have come to an end. But by the time the convention loomed on the horizon, Moya had been effectively abandoned by all of her councilors — all except one, Wayne Usher, who was her first deputy and the only one to remain with the embattled Mayor Moya.
 
I believe in her. The people of Belize City have the power to choose.” Usher went on to say that no matter who wins, the party will come together to serve the city.
 
Anthony Michael told Amandala that his chances were pretty good. “I have worked hard. I served my people well and hard. My chances are good. People will judge both of us. Both camps are mobilizing in signs of true democracy. The race is over. Today is just where the report card will be shown.”
 
But the report card did not give Michael the passing grade that he had felt so confident about getting. In a stunning fashion, Moya defeated her challenger by over a thousand votes. Some observers at the convention believe that the results are a referendum on the leadership of Party Leader and Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, who they think sat back and allowed things to get out of hand at City Hall between Moya and her councilors.
 
The other prevailing school of thought is that the UDP leadership was deadly serious in their attempt to remove Moya for what is perceived as infractions which are minor when compared to those of the former Prime Minister Said Musa, under whose watch millions of tax payers’ dollars were misdirected into areas for which there were no Cabinet instructions or National Assembly approval.
 
Following an audit report last week and a meeting of the councilors with the Ministry of Local Government, the then Belize City councilors unanimously voted for the Mayor to repay $90,000, which they claim she had overpaid herself.
 
But Mayor Moya has commented to the media that as long as she is mayor, there will be no deduction from her pay.
 
It remains to be seen if today’s victory at the convention will further embolden Moya, who in effect, has a new lease on her political life after defeating the favorite of the UDP’s hierarchy.
 
It has been widely stated that a few of the incumbent councilors will offer to resign rather than go into elections with Zenaida as their leader. We shall see.
 
(Ed. Note: Amandala tried to get background information on Eric Chang from his running mates today, and none of them we spoke with could tell us anything specific about him. One of the running mates said he only met Chang recently, as he was being promoted by two standard bearers. Another said he met Chang two months ago, and felt comfortable teaming up with him because of the political support he pledged. Chang is reportedly a Taiwanese-Belizean, in his twenties, closely connected with Lee Mark Chang of Chon Saan Palace.)

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