The magic number is 16 seats; PUP already has 2…

by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 6, 2025

The upcoming General Elections 2025 have already become unique and unprecedented in Belize’s short history as an independent and democratic nation, because two seats have already been decided without a vote, leaving only 29 remaining seats to be filled by candidates selected by the voters. The schism within the Opposition United Democratic Party has led to neither UDP faction nominating a candidate for two divisions in Belize City, leaving the ruling People’s United Party candidates—Hon. Henry Charles Usher in the Fort George Division and Hon. Anthony Mahler in the Pickstock Division, to be declared the winners unopposed on Nomination Day, Monday, February 24.

A total of 90 candidates were nominated, and there are 197,018 registered voters in the 29 remaining electoral divisions, who will be selecting from among the remaining 88 candidates, the individuals they want to represent them in the House of Representatives. There may be three, four or even five candidates contesting a seat, and the Elections and Boundaries Commission has tried to make it easier for voters to identify their candidate of choice by color-coding their names on the ballot box, with each party assigned a specific color. The PUP will be using their traditional blue, while both factions of the UDP have been assigned red.

There are five (5) candidates contesting the Port Loyola Division, which is unique in having three UDP candidates on the ballot. Stann Creek West and Belize Rural Central also have five candidates each! The Queen’s Square, Albert, Cayo Central and Belize Rural South divisions each have four candidates.

In addition to the two major political parties, there are four minority parties who have nominated candidates, as well as four independent candidates. The Belizean Justice Movement nominated 7 candidates: Aaron Wilson for Belize Rural Central, Abner Bacab in Belize Rural South, Condace Espedido in Corozal North, Leroy Lisbey in Cayo North, Roody Lewinskey Wade in Cayo Central, Esduit Moralez in Cayo West, and Domingo Valerio in Stann Creek West, who can all be identified on the ballot by the melon color.

The People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) nominated 4 candidates: Cornelio Galvez for the Albert Division, Garry Matus in Queen’s Square, Wilmore Tablada for Port Loyola, and Estevan Perera for Belize Rural Central, who can all be identified on the ballot by the color yellow.

The Peoples’ National Party (PNP) was assigned the color green, and the PNP nominated two candidates: Andrew Reynolds in Belize Rural North and Wil Maheia in Toledo East.

The General Opportunity Development Party nominated Francisco Escobar in Cayo Central, identifiable on the ballot by the color white.

Incumbent Elvia Vega-Samos is running as an independent candidate in Corozal Bay; her color is turquoise on the ballot. Mateo Polanco is running as an independent in Stann Creek West, identifiable on the ballot by the brown color. Golden brown was assigned to independent candidate Orlando Albert Muschamp, who is challenging the incumbent PUP representative, Hon. Osmond Martinez, Ph.D., in Toledo East. The commission assigned the gold color to independent Cyril Garcia, the only challenger to the PUP incumbent Hon. Louis Zabaneh, Ph.D., in the Dangriga division.

_{Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai}

There are 484 polling stations, Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai informed the media in an interview on Thursday, March 6, and the Elections and Boundaries Commission has made it easy for voters to know where they are to go vote and at which polling station they are to vote. Voters may go online to the Commission’s website: www.elections.bz, and search by typing in their name, and entering their date of birth in the online calendar portal. Voters can also verify that their names are on the voters’ list, which will be posted at each polling station, listing the voters who are authorized to vote at that particular polling station.

A result should be known by midnight, Tamai affirmed, so she encouraged voters to come out and vote early. The polls will open punctually at 7 o’clock in the morning and will close at 6 o’clock in the evening. Tamai recommended that voters take along their voter registration identification card, which has their photograph, when they go to vote.

Pregnant women, the elderly and persons with physical disabilities will be given first preference to vote, as well as police officers who are working that day, said Tamai. Voters will be required to dip their right index finger in an indelible ink pot when they receive their ballot paper. The polling clerks manning the polling stations will first verify that the voter’s right index finger is unblemished, and no one will be issued a ballot, if they already have ink on their finger, to prevent anyone from voting twice.

The Commission has been running a public education campaign on local television stations, to inform new voters about the ballot process, explaining that each candidate will be identified on the ballot by the color assigned to their political party. No political party takes precedence on the ballot; the candidates’ names are listed alphabetically by their surnames, which is completely independent of the political party they represent.

Each voter should mark their X next to the name of the candidate of their choice. Tamai asked voters to please not mark more than one box, or this would result in a spoilt ballot. Each voter may only vote for one candidate, and voters will be issued a ballot which lists only the candidates for that electoral division, not the entire party slate. After marking their ballot in the polling booth, voters are asked to fold their ballot paper in a manner that will conceal how they voted, but will ensure the visibility of the polling officer’s signature on the back of the ballot. Once they show this to the polling officer, they will be allowed to place their ballot paper in the ballot box. They must then leave the polling station and its environs, as no political electioneering is allowed within a 100-yard perimeter around the polling stations.

Belize’s democratic process has always led to peaceful and orderly elections and smooth transitions of government administrations, and this year Belize will have international observers from both the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United States’ Embassy, who will be monitoring the electoral process, as has been the Embassy’s common practice in the past.

Since the Commission has known for some time that 2025 is an election year for both the General Elections and Village Council elections, the Commission has been preparing for the elections for months, by training the over 2,000 public officers who will be working at the polling booths.

There will be a returning officer responsible for each of the 29 electoral divisions. Each polling station will have several election clerks to assist the returning officer, and there will also be information clerks posted at each polling station where there are more than three breakdowns in the list for that division, to help voters find the correct polling station (room or booth) where they are to cast their vote. The polling stations will be properly marked so that voters will know where to go.

Many parties have gone to court to try to oblige the government to conduct a redistricting exercise before the general elections are held to even out the number of voters in each division, and Tamai acknowledged that a redistricting process is needed. The Elections Department has begun a preliminary review of the voters’ list with this in mind, but it is a tedious and painstaking process, as the Commission will have to ensure that they verify that their data is accurate, and voters will need to be notified of the new electoral division to which they have been re-assigned, based on the geographic location of their place of residence. The Commission awaits instructions from the government about when to proceed. But that will have to be done before a subsequent election, because the court has already given the green light for this one, and the general election machinery is in full gear for March 12 when a winner should be declared by midnight or earlier.