Last Sunday, April 27, the PUP held a convention to elect a standard-bearer for the Cayo Central constituency. The combatants were former area representative Dan Silva and controversial businessman Luke Espat.

It was a highly anticipated convention in some quarters, but in the end, Silva administered a good old-fashioned beat-down on Espat, trouncing him by a 3 to 1 margin. Silva received 1,426 votes while Espat got 487.

The 1933 votes cast is more than double the PUP’s output in their last standard-bearer convention in 2011. The winner of that convention, Collet Montejo, went on to narrowly lose the 2012 general elections by 40 votes to present Minister of Works Rene Montero. Montejo, who was appointed Senator by the PUP following the defeat, threw his support behind Luke Espat, but it all came to naught.

Silva is a former two-time area representative of the constituency, and during his last term, the 1998-2003 term of the PUP, he served as Minister of Agriculture. He did not contest the March 2003 general elections, which the PUP won, and returned to the private sector.