In their first major meeting for the campaign season, members of all three parties met this morning with Elections and Boundaries officials and high-ranking police command, including Assistant Police Commissioner, Crispin Jeffries, Sr., Eastern Division Commander. The group has decided that Valentine?s Day, February 14, will be Nomination Day. This will be the last opportunity for independent candidates to get into the race.

Chief Elections Officer, Stuart Leslie, briefed the media on the elections for the first time this afternoon.

He said, ?At the moment, registering officers and assistants are out in the field trying to track down the new voters.?

Registration for the elections closed on January 10, and there are 2,000 people who have applied to be added to the voting list. As of December 2005, 75,562 voters were registered to vote in all 9 municipalities; 45% of the voters are actually for Belize City.

The voters? list will only be finalized after it goes through its usual sanitization. Once the officers at Elections and Boundaries have finished their fieldwork, the department will prepare a draft list by January 16, and between that date and the 21st, they will do their in-house checking.

The political parties will have from January 21 to January 31 to scrutinize the list, after which it goes to the Supreme Court to hear whatever challenges anyone may raise regarding the names on the list. After that a final list is prepared, and Leslie said that the plan is to have that list out by Nomination Day.

He said that people can only vote if they are registered. Those whose cards are lost or damaged are urged to apply for new ones, he added.

People eligible to vote are Belizean nationals or Commonwealth nationals who have lived here for at least a year.

Leslie told the media that so far no independent candidates have signed up for the municipal elections. In the last municipal elections, held on March 1, 2003, there were 8 independent candidates, 3 in Belize City and 5 in Belmopan.

The independent candidates in Belize City garnered only 1% of votes, while those in Belmopan fared off much better, with 12%. Three of the Belmopan independents, Robert Lopez, Hubert Enriquez and Morgan, have now emerged on the VIP slate. Top independent vote getter in Belmopan, Morgan, this time heads the VIP slate.

At a press conference following the Elections and Boundaries briefing with the media, he raised objections over the format of the ballot for the municipal elections. According to Leslie, Elections and Boundaries officials have decided that on the ballot paper, all members of the incumbent (ruling) party will be listed first. The Opposition slate will be listed second and third, there will be the independent candidates. In the case of Belmopan, VIP will be listed third, after which independent candidates will appear.

Morgan, who is offering himself as a candidate for third time, argues that this is not only unfair, but it is a violation of the Belmopan City Council Act, paragraph 10.1. This section states that, ?The Mayor shall be directly elected by the electorate from among persons who offer themselves as candidates for Mayor in a general election held to elect a new Council.?

He argues that there should be an entirely separate ballot on which the mayoral candidates are listed, and their names should appear in alphabetical order, with their party colors next to their names. He further proposes that the councilor candidates should appear on a separate ballot and should not be listed by party, but alphabetically by names.

Such a format, he said, would be more objective than the present ballot format. He also said that it would speed up counting.

This has been practiced in many democratic countries, like England and the United States, he added.

Both the UDP and the PUP representatives present this morning disagreed with Morgan?s argument, and the Elections and Boundaries Department decided to go with the majority rule; so VIP lost this one.

On the issue of the ballot format, Port Loyola area representative, Anthony ?Boots? Martinez, the man who calls himself ?ground commander? for the UDP in the elections, told Amandala that, ?It has been the normal practice; there is nothing in law that regulates that. I think that is up to the discretion of the Chief Elections Officer.?

Belize City mayoral candidate for the PUP, Marshall Nunez, said that the present ballot is perfectly legal.

?I think the other two established parties have agreed that the way it has been done traditionally is the right way. I think the VIP is saying that it might create some confusion the way it is, but I think the way they are proposing would create even greater confusion,? Nunez told Amandala.

Last week the UDP?s Belize City slate launched its manifesto, but the PUP have yet to launch theirs. Nunez said that it would be out in a couple of weeks, hopefully before Nomination Day.

Their major campaign issues, he said, would be jobs and land.

?We need people to be working and contributing to the local economy,? he said.

Martinez commended the openness of the Chief Elections Officer and he expressed his gratitude for the level of consultation he has had with the parties running the municipal race. He said that at the meeting this morning, Leslie asked for suggestions and input from the various parties, and they were in agreement with almost everything.

Apart from deciding on February 14 as Nomination Day, they also set the ground rules. It was decided that any independent candidates would sign up for nomination between 9 and 10 in the morning. The PUP?s slot would be from 10 to 11:30, VIP in Belmopan would take the 12 to 1:30 slot and the UDP would get the afternoon slot from 2 to 3:30.

Each candidate has to be nominated by another person. Each slate in Belize City can carry an entourage to the nomination station of up to 38, while those elsewhere can take up to 28 along with them.

ACP Jeffries said that there would strict rules enforced to limit access to the Government Complex at Mahogany Street on Nomination Day.