_{by: Wellington C. Ramos}

Local Government reform is needed in Belize to tackle the economic and infrastructural problems facing our cities, towns, villages and our Indigenous citizens.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

In 1984, when the United Democratic Party was first elected to government, their Minister of Local Government, the late Philip Goldson, recommended that Local Government Reform be done nationwide throughout the country to grant more autonomy to the cities, towns and villages. He stated that, in order for Belize to grow as a nation, we must find a way to collaborate with these various integral parts of our government to encourage growth and expansion throughout our country … The subventions that the cities and towns receive monthly in Belize, are not enough to keep up with their monthly expenditures. Plus, they do not generate enough revenues to meet their monthly expenses …

Since his death, I have not heard any other Minister of Local Government saying or doing anything about this issue. Belizean citizens who have been elected in the past and currently, in both the PUP and UDP, know that this issue must be addressed, but are afraid to speak up. The mayors of our cities and towns, along with our village councils’ chairpersons and alcaldes, are only getting false promises from their area representatives, with little or no assistance being provided to them. 

Central Government is not working for Belizeans well in this area. In fact, the truth is that when a party loses the general elections, it is like they are wasting their time running for municipal elections, because the party that is controlling the Central Government, will not cooperate or provide them with the resources they need to prevail …

Every three years in the country of Belize, the citizens get the opportunity to vote for the mayors, village council chairpersons, alcaldes and councilors for their respective cities, towns and villages. Belize has eight towns and two cities, namely, Belize City and Belmopan, which is the capital of the country… 

In most English-speaking Caribbean countries and Belize, general elections are held every five years. The governments in these countries are centralized and, once they win the general election, they are in control of everything and there is very little an Opposition party can do if they win the municipal election. 

The municipal governments which are the cities, towns and villages have very little autonomy and depend on the Central Government’s Ministry of Local Government and other Ministries to get funding in order to carry out their municipal functions. The people in Belize, knowing this, tend to vote for the party in power in the municipal elections that are held … 

In some of the municipalities, the city councils and the town boards sold out most of the cities’ and towns’ equipment they had used to keep their cities and towns clean. Today, most of these municipalities have to spend a large part of their budgets contracting private contractors to do work on behalf of their cities and town boards to keep the cities and towns clean and their streets and roads trafficable.

Three years is a long time for people in our cities, towns and villages to wait for something to happen in their communities where they live every day. The people of Belize and the English speaking-Caribbean, who are living under this old British model of government, should encourage their current governments to introduce reforms that will benefit their citizens and improve their communities and their daily living conditions.

In this year 2025 I expect the People’s United Party (PUP) to win most of these up-coming village council elections again by a landslide because the United Democratic Party (UDP) is disorganized, restructuring and is struggling for a new identity and new leadership. 

However, the People’s United Party must not take Belizean citizens for granted, because they want their current economic conditions to improve…

The purpose for effective government municipalities, is to create proper infrastructures and environments for their citizens to live a peaceful, safe and quality life in their cities, towns and villages. If not, what are the reasons for all the election excitement, if the infrastructural, economic and living conditions of people in the cities, towns and villages are not to their satisfaction?

(AMANDALA Ed. Note: The above is a significantly edited/abbreviated version of Mr. Ramos’ article.)