A hundred thousand voters across Belize spoke, in fact screamed, in clear and decisive terms today when they voted out the People’s United Party from office and took back power from the party’s long-time campaign manager, Ralph Fonseca, who suffered an astounding defeat from the United Democratic Party’s unknown newcomer, Michael “Hutchie” Hutchinson, in Belize Rural Central—an area that was deemed impenetrable, dominated by Fonseca since the constituency was carved out by the then ruling PUP in 1993.
That bombshell was dropped at about 4:20 this morning, as the nation kept diligent watch of what will prove to be one of the most memorable elections in post-Independent Belize. What is clear is that the Belizean electorate is enlightened. Gone are the days when people decide their votes based on party colors, bribes and personal allegiances. All across the country a majority of Belizeans spoke on the issues, and with the stroke of their pens recorded their dissatisfaction with the outgoing administration.
Officials from both mass parties panicked in the morning as heavy downpours centered on Belize City and Orange Walk threatened to keep voters away from the polls, but the weather cleared up substantially in the afternoon. Still, at some polling stations where it rained, many voters were undeterred.
For the most part, those PUP’s who survived the political cleansing did so “by the skin of their teeth.” Among them are Freetown’s Francis Fonseca (Ralph’s cousin) and PUP Leader/former Prime Minister Said Musa. The more notable survivors are Orange Walk Central’s Johnny Briceño, Lake I’s Cordel Hyde and Albert’s Mark Espat – three former members of the G-7 group – seven Ministers who had resigned from the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Said Musa, calling on him to remove Fonseca from Cabinet in the wake of controversy over the mismanagement of public funds. That resignation never happened, and two of the G-7 Ministers were booted from Cabinet after they took a stand against Musa’s widely unpopular decision to pay a $33 million debt for Universal Health Services – a decision from which Musa was forced to backtrack. The picture of the 2008 General Elections is painted against this political backdrop.
Driving voting at the polls were the basic “bread and butter” issues like the cost of living, as well as the prevalence of crime, especially in the old capital, Belize City.
Announcing that the time for change has come, a mass of red flooded roadways in pockets around the country, declaring their win even before official results had been announced.
By midnight, UDP supporters had already kicked off celebrations in front of the party’s Belize City headquarters at the foot of the BelChina bridge. Only hours after the polls had closed, UDP supporters in the City were leading noisy motorcades, flying oversized party flags, honking horns and celebrating a rare victory, even though the results were not official. The victory is rare, we say, because in Belize’s 54 years of election history, the PUP has dominated in 10 of the 12 preceding elections, and this is only their third loss to the UDP.
But PUP leader Said Musa is applying the three-strike rule. Musa had successfully led the PUP to back-to-back victories in 1998 and 2003, but today, he soberly announced in an interview conducted with Jules Vasquez for KREM and Channel 7’s joint ’08 Now election coverage, that win or lose, this would be his last election.
Musa was one of a handful of PUP candidates who survived today’s face-off with the voters. When the first ballot boxes were being counted, Musa was actually trailing in a division that had been his stronghold. But as the night progressed, he emerged victorious in his division.
As the results continued to trickle in, it was clear that the PUP’s power base had been shaken, and the PUP no longer had the numbers to control the Government. They will now form the Opposition, with Musa now filling the shoes of the Leader of the Opposition.
None of the PUP newcomers—as promising as they are—factored anywhere in the race, and in some cases, voters made it clear that electing them to office would be giving undeserved votes to the PUP, and endorsing further PUP control of Government.
The utter PUP rejection was clear in some areas, where in some cases historic margins of victory constricted, and in other cases, where the numbers spelled a clear blowout.
Most notable among the early results were Mesopotamia and Queen Square, where the UDP area reps – Michael Finnegan and Dean Barrow, respectively, more than tripled the number of votes their opponents got.
The UDP did as well in 1984, when it garnered 21 seats of 28. However, the biggest landslide victory in any general elections came in 1998, when the PUP took over the reins of power from the UDP.
Musa won the first back-to-back terms since Independence, but at the same time, the past 10 years have been rocked by scandal after scandal, and a series of corruption allegations beginning with the Intelco deal in which one of the PUP’s own financiers, none other than billionaire Michael Ashcroft, accused Musa in a court document of “a sting operation” in trying to get him to purchase a phone company for what he deemed to be more than its actual value.
Even while issues like the demise of the Development Finance Corporation and the Universal Health Services deal have been central to national debate on the airwaves, voters today put things in plain and simple terms – and that is simply that corruption carries a cost.
Several voters complained that the cost of maintaining their Belizean standard of life has increased too much or that too many public assets have been changed to private hands to benefit a few.
Still, there were those PUP supporters who genuinely believe that the PUP candidates and the party are development-driven and hence, a better choice for Belize. The PUP blue machinery fought until the close of the polls today to mobilize voters, but some gave the sense that even though they were in blue regalia, they were only sporting the gear and campaigning as a job.
It is clear that while the PUP made many good promises, such as free laptop computers for children, money grants for home improvement, and the promise of an elected Senate, it was not enough to sway enough voters.
Two UDP officials told the ‘08 Now team that even though it appeared that voters in certain constituencies were wearing PUP shirts, they were “gaming” the PUP, deceiving the party just the way party had deceived them for the last 10 years.
At around midnight, UDP supporters, a vast majority of them young men and women of whom some were identified to us as PUP campaigners, had amassed in front of the UDP headquarters on Youth for the Future Drive, celebrating with loudspeakers, dancing and singing to tunes like the Tanya Stevens’ song – “The Other Cheek”
“Tings wah change now!” one supporter yelled out, echoing sentiments that had been expressed to us by others “red” supporters.
Given the atmosphere in which the UDP has gained its landslide victory, Barrow concedes that he has a substantial mandate. In speaking of the 5-year mandate for him and his party, Barrow said it is, “…clearly a mandate for change, a mandate for economic renewal, a mandate for social renewal, and a mandate for governance renewal…it seems to me that at the bottom, this thing was about people having become disgusted at the outrages that an executive seemed to feel it could do without any real heed and regard to the people. So I think we have to be guided above all by that consideration that we must do things in an open, honest, and transparent fashion…”
Barrow also inherits a government that has been and continues to be under serious financial challenges, especially in light of a shift from borrowing from international agencies to borrowing from commercial banks:
“I want to take on as a part of the portfolio as the Minister of Finance, responsibility for dealing with the international corporation agencies – the World Bank, the IDB, the CDB, Cabei, the European Development Bank,” he told us. “I think that apart from trying to do far better in terms of proper spending of monies, proper collection of revenue, in terms of local economy, we clearly have to be looking abroad.”
He acknowledged that more urgent than dealing with issues of public finance are the bread and butter issues that affect people every day:
“What’s going to be harder is delivering with respect of the goods and services, people’s requirements and demands that we do something about easing the cost of living, we do something about trying to put more money in their pockets, do something about trying to lower taxes, job creation, land and housing, those basic nuts and bolts issues which again must be tackled and tacked quickly, but which demand so much on the level of resources that’s available to the government… So that’s going to be again a work in progress for some time to come, but again I think if we hit the ground running and we try to go at it with a will from early on, we can make a success of this.
One of the issues that came up under the Musa administration is that voters should have the power to recall an administration that is not performing or is abusing the people. Barrow committed to drafting such legislation within the first three months of his tenure.
Voters go to the polls again in 2009 for municipal elections.
For now, Mr. Barrow and his team are looking immediately at the euphoric days ahead. He told us that he will complete a plan for his Cabinet over the weekend, and on Monday, he meets with his party to discuss their plans. Early next week, either on Monday or Tuesday, new Ministers of government will be sworn in. Collet’s Patrick Faber will be the Minister of Education while Orange Walk North’s Gaspar “Gapi” Vega will be Deputy Prime Minister.
Barrow had claimed victory even before midnight, moments after final results for his constituency were in. Reacting to the projections of victory made around midnight tonight, he told us: “I am happy, I am extremely grateful to the people of this country. I am extremely humbled by the fact that the people have demonstrated what we all ought to know but we sometimes seem to forget – that all power comes from them.”
(According to the UDP, the David who unseated the Goliath Ralph Fonseca, Michael “Hutchie” Hutchinson, previously served as the deputy chairperson of the Ladyville Village Council. He has been employed for the last 18 years with the British Forces Belize (BATSUB). He is married and the father of four children.)