Over the Christmas holidays a PUP insider told me that their Hon. Ralph Fonseca is once again considering a run in the PUP’s Belize Rural Central convention. According to the published instructions of the PUP Secretariat, all 31 constituencies should have held their conventions by July 31 of this year (2006), but PUP Rural Central remains up in the air. This looks like one more case of special rules for special people.
The background to this is interesting, especially as it pertains to Mr. Fonseca and Senator Dolores Balderamos-Garcia. There are two other people who entered the race for Rural Central several months ago. These are Dr. Cardo Martinez and Mr. Efrain Miller. The feeling inside PUP circles was that Dr. Martinez was Ralph’s candidate, while Mr. Miller, the least known of the candidates, has always exuded an air of great confidence.
Belize Rural Central is the third newest constituency in Belize. Because the 1989 general elections almost ended in a tie (1989 was decided 15-13 in favor of the PUP when the very last seat went blue), it was decided by the new PUP administration that another division would be added for the next general elections to make the total number of seats an odd number – 29.
In his first political run, when he contested the Queen’s Square seat in 1984, Ralph Fonseca was badly beaten by Dean Barrow. Both Fonseca and Barrow were first time general election candidates at the time. Queen’s Square was a new division in 1984. (The original Collet division was split into three constituencies – Collet, Lake Independence and Queen’s Square for the 1984 general elections.)
The 1984 Queen’s Square result left Ralph Fonseca shell-shocked, so much so that he declined to run in the 1989 general elections, even though he was a major, major PUP player in those elections.
Mr. Fonseca was appointed Minister of State in Prime Minister George Price’s Finance Ministry when the PUP formed the new government in September of 1989. Most political observers believe that he quickly became de facto Minister of Finance in that 1989–1993 PUP administration. He could not be legally appointed Finance Minister, because the laws of Belize prevent any individual who is not elected to the House of Representatives from becoming Finance Minister.
For whatever the reasons, it appeared that Mr. Price began to consider Mr. Fonseca to be indispensable to him in the Finance Ministry. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, one of Mr. Price’s nieces, had begun campaigning to become the PUP candidate for the new Belize Rural Central constituency, which included Ladyville, Burrell Boom, Hattieville, Gracie Rock, La Democracia and Gales Point Manatee. It must have been sometime in 1992 that Dolores asked my advice on the matter of Belize Rural Central. At that time, Dolores was doing a jazz show on KREM Radio, and we were friendly. Mr. Price and Mr. Said Musa had asked her to step aside to allow Ralph to run as the PUP Belize Rural Central candidate. My opinion, expressed to Dolores, was that the Price/Musa “request” was more an order than a request. Ralph became the candidate, and Dolores was promised an appointment to the Senate and the Attorney General’s post if the PUP won.
Ralph won the Belize Rural Central seat in the 1993 general elections, but the PUP lost to the UDP/NABR coalition. Dolores, for her part, had to solicit the support of PUP Deputy Leader, Hon. Florencio Marin, in order to have the PUP fulfill their Senate promise.
As PUP Port Loyola candidate in the 1993 general elections, Dorla Bowman had been a big disappointment, so that constituency became a possibility for Dolores. She was hardly a natural fit for a Southside, ghetto constituency, but she won the PUP’s Port Loyola convention and ran in the 1998 general elections. It did not appear that she had much of a chance against the UDP’s Boots Martinez, but the swing to the PUP in 1998 was such a tidal wave it brought Dolores Balderamos-Garcia into the House as area representative for Port Loyola.
In the 2003 general elections, a lot of things caught up with Dolores, and she was badly beaten by Boots. Last year, however, with her political career in ruins, Dolores saw a chance for a comeback in the same division which had been her first choice back in the early 1990’s. There were reports that Hon. Ralph was not feeling well, and might not run again. Dolores began to stir around, and the PUP disaster in the March 1 municipal elections this year increased her energy in Rural Central. Our reports are, in fact, that Rural Central’s influential Mrs. Vincent Parks, is prominent in Mrs. Balderamos-Garcia’s campaign team.
All our sources are saying that Dolores is 100 percent determined to run in Belize Rural Central. If Mr. Fonseca has again decided to defend his standard bearer’s position in Belize Rural Central, then such a convention would be almost sensational.
About three weeks ago, a PUP Deputy Leader/Cabinet Minister wrote a column in the PUP newspaper in which he praised Mr. Ralph Fonseca profusely, but ended up recommending that Ralph not run. It would appear that there is somewhat of a tug-of-war at very high levels inside the ruling party. The PUP are usually very good at “holding it down” where internal power struggles are concerned. One exception was the Mark Espat vs Winston Smiling/Luke Espat wrangle a few months ago. The PUP Leader Emeritus came out of “retirement” to berate Espat on behalf of Smiling, Luke and Ralph.
The reason the PUP Belize Rural Central convention would be “almost sensational” is because Emeritus would be forced to choose between a favored niece and a special favorite. It would be the very definition of “dilemma.”