Amandala hit the road again on an overcast and rainy Sunday to continue our coverage of the 2010 Village and Community Council elections.
41 polls were to have been held in all six districts, but the number was reduced to 35 as all six elections in the Toledo West constituency had to be postponed, according to chair of the Election and Boundaries Commission, Alberto August, at the request of convalescing area representative, Hon. Juan Coy, as a result of last week’s traffic accident in which he and his police brother-in-law were injured and his wife Brigida died. The affected villages are San Pedro Colombia (Coy’s home village and the largest in Toledo); Golden Stream, Indian Creek, Medina Bank, San Miguel and Silver Creek.
In the Belize District there were five elections, three in Belize Rural North and two in Belize Rural Central. In Biscayne, the elected slate was unopposed and unanimously elected (it includes Amandala’s own Deshan Swasey as a councilor). Maypen, off the Northern Highway, also re-elected an independent slate led by incumbent Olivia Moody in unanimous fashion. The only contested election in the North was in Gardenia, where the PUP say they took the chair and three councilors to three for the UDP.
However, the UDP, in a press release sent yesterday, Tuesday, claim the Biscayne slate and four councilors in Gardenia.
Amandala visited the two contested villages in Belize Rural Central, Hattieville and Mahogany Heights, located at either end of the constituency and about fifteen miles apart.
Both villages, for different reasons, are considered to be important in the division. Hattieville was formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Hattie in 1961 as a refuge for people from devastated areas, particularly Belize City. It has been strongly PUP in decades past and served as a sort of home base for ex-Rural Central representative Ralph Fonseca. Mahogany Heights was originally conceived as a “satellite city” and a new refuge for Belizeans from across the nation. But the plans fell apart, the money disappeared, and in 2007 it was christened as a village at the tail end of village council elections that year; its first elected council (not contested) was controlled by the PUP.
On Sunday, it was a different story in both villages. In Hattieville the PUP had no defined slate and the UDP was left to face two independent groupings, sporting the colors yellow and green rather than blue.
Upon our arriving just before 11:00 a.m. under rainy skies at the Hattieville Government School where polling was taking place at a slow rate, we found all three slates at work. Elvin Staine, councilor candidate on the “Together Everyone Achieves More” (TEAM) 7 slate, told us that the people of Hattieville were not much interested in partisan politics, having been effectively abandoned by both major parties. He cited street lighting and repair and drainage as some of the key issues of concern to Hattieville residents. Chairman candidate Gilbert “Sala” Domingo made it clear to Amandala that his slate was not running undercover for the PUP, as his opponents have been alleging, and said he would go on record to make sure the PUP did not attempt to claim the village.
Stanley Barrow, councilor candidate on the Hattieville Development Group (HDG) slate, told Amandala that Hattieville in its forty-year existence was perhaps the only village between Belize City and Belmopan that had no distinctive agriculture or tourism development to provide opportunities for jobs to people of the village and that that would be their main focus.
But the UDP’s chairman candidate, Eaton Panton, told us Hattievillians were ready for a switch to the UDP, and felt that the non-activity of the blue would help the red in the final analysis.
Domingo’s full TEAM 7 slate was elected. Community activist Patrick Rogers told us on Monday night that he personally assisted in logistical details for this slate and some others in the Belize District, but reiterated that Vision Inspired by the People (VIP) is not claiming credit for the Hattieville slate’s victory, or any other. According to Rogers, the independent streak in the Belize District is the foundation for a strong challenge to the entrenched two-party system in 2012 and 2013.
In Mahogany Heights, much has changed since 2007. Some of the paved streets are showing signs of wear and tear, and a new chairman is in charge – Constance Ellypat Skeete, elected last June.
Skeete, running for re-election on Sunday, told Amandala that her slate was independent and that she trusted the 1,000 residents of the village, mostly transplants from Belize City, to make the best choice.
Opponent Marion Lewis, whose slate he described as being “UDP-leaning,” said that some of the main issues concerning the former satellite city are the situation over the land on which the village sits, which has not been resolved, and the problem of representation.
According to Lewis, while the village lies in Belize Rural Central, under Hon. Michael Hutchinson, there are only about 50 voters registered in Mahogany Heights, and most of the rest come from Belize City divisions – Collet, Lake Independence and Port Loyola in particular – and have more access to those division’s representatives than to Hutchinson.
Some residents even professed not to know who Hutchinson was when we asked them if they had seen their area representative.
Skeete told us area residents have been complaining about the water system, which has been abandoned. In addition there are also concerns about the backed-up sewerage system.
In the end, four councilors from Skeete’s slate and two from Lewis’ were elected and Skeete was returned as chair. The UDP has since formally claimed the two councilors elected from Lewis’ slate.
Our next and last stop for the day was Pomona in the heart of the Stann Creek Valley on the last weekend of elections in the Stann Creek District. Pomona’s split council was contested in a five-horse race for chairman and three full slates for councilor.
Near the close of polls at 4:15 p.m., the line was long and the community was anticipating a long count. The UDP looked more active, buoyed by an earlier victory in Hope Creek (6-1), while the PUP were looking to add one last big scalp in the Stann Creek District to those already collected in Placencia, Silk Grass and under-dispute Independence, having taken Sarawee (5-2) on the day.
Incumbent chairman Winston Taylor was leading a council in which he did not have the majority (4-3 PUP), but was nonetheless able, according to running mate Roy Casey, to do much for the village, including building the multi-purpose building in which the vote was held, a new health center and distributing land.
Pomona, we are told, nevertheless went full PUP.
Mullins River, we understand, is filing a protest against the results there, which the UDP are claiming in a 4-3 split, because villagers were allegedly misled on the nomination process. We understand that both political parties nominated slates, but that only one was nominated and when no other nominations were taken before 10:00 a.m. that slate was declared elected, much to residents’ dismay.
From Cayo, Amandala columnist Colin Hyde reported late Monday evening that the UDP are claiming victories in Roaring Creek, Camalote, Teakettle, Ontario, San Antonio and Cristo Rey. Dale Pelayo is chair of Roaring Creek; Raymond Sheppard heads the team in Camalote (which the red are claiming although Sheppard told Colin that his team is independent); Matthew Patnett is chairman of Teakettle and Edward Arthurs leads Ontario, all located in Cayo South. In Cayo Central, Rene Canto and Giovanni Montalvan led their slates to victories in San Antonio and Cristo Rey, respectively. Duck Run I and Billy White (6-1) in Cayo Northeast, both former PUP strongholds, went to the UDP as well, with the PUP’s only victory in Cayo coming in Duck Run II.
According to the PUP executive in the Cayo South area, they did not go out seeking candidates for elections in these villages and did not aggressively campaign in Roaring Creek, Camalote, Teakettle and Ontario, although they supported candidates in these villages. Carlos Santos, Jr., member of the PUP executive, promised Hyde that next week in Cotton Tree, St. Matthew’s and Frank’s Eddy there would be “serious contests.”
The UDP are confirmed winners in Yo Chen, San Pedro, Cristo Rey, San Roman, Santa Clara and Louisville in the Corozal District (North and Southwest), while the PUP won in Patchakan and Chan Chen in Corozal North.
In Orange Walk South, the UDP swept San Carlos, August Pine Ridge and Guinea Grass and took San Felipe from the blue in an upset, while Indian Church went PUP. According to campaign coordinator Servulo Baeza, about 100 persons from the Gallon Jug/Silvestre community, who normally vote in San Felipe (polling area 63), were not allowed to vote this time, but the party will not protest the result.
The UDP are claiming the four Toledo East villages, Corazon Creek, Otoxha, Dolores and San Lucas and retroactively announced their victory in Georgeville, chronicled in the Amandala last week.
By Amandala calculations the UDP this week won twenty-two councils to seven for the PUP, with four independent, two disputed and six elections postponed.
There are three more weeks of elections to go. Orange Walk winds down next week, Cayo and Toledo after that, and Corozal and Belize Districts on June 6.