Mira won 653 votes out of 940 votes cast

BELMOPAN, Mon. Aug. 27, 2018– If  the applications for candidacy of all the political aspirants who wanted to run in the People’s United Party (PUP) Belmopan constituency convention yesterday, Sunday, had been accepted, it would have been a 5-way race, but the party did not accept the applications of two other aspirants, Arthur Saldivar and Jason Patrick Andrews. So in the end, it was a three-way race between three first-time political aspirants: Oscar Mira, Wiezsman Pat and Michelle Rodriguez.

Despite inclement weather which blanketed Belize, almost one thousand voters showed up on the Belmopan Comprehensive High School campus to cast votes in the convention to decide who would be PUP standard bearer for the next general election.

When the balloting finished at 5:00 p.m. and the returning officer handed in the results, Oscar Mira, a former Belize Defence Force officer, came out on top. Mira received 653 votes out of the 940 votes that were cast.

Michelle Rodriguez, the wife of the former UDP Stann Creek area representative, Melvin Hulse, garnered 171 votes, while Wiseman Pat, a retired public officer, picked up 94 votes. There were a reported 22 spoilt ballots.

Following his victory, Mira was sworn in as PUP Belmopan standard bearer and will face off in the next general elections against the United Democratic Party incumbent John Saldivar.

Mira was quoted on Krem Radio’s newscast as saying, “Our machinery was working yesterday, and I think I had a good day working hard taking out our voters.”

Mira said he has never left Belmopan and worked in the PUP executive from after the first time he was a candidate in Belmopan.

Mira added, “The only way we will win in Belmopan is if all of us come together under one big tent, to ensure that we have a PUP representative in Belmopan. The UDP representative in Belmopan is not invincible. We will start working from now and the voters will decide. I will be in touch with each and every voter.”