On Saturday afternoon, around 4:30 p.m., the People’s United Party selected 11 candidates to contest the Belize City Council elections slated for March 4.
The PUP nominated a mayoral candidate and ten councilor candidates to “tek back wi city” from the incumbent United Democratic Party at Independence Hall, the party headquarters, on Queen Street.
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Lake Independence area rep and one of three PUP deputy leaders, readily admitted – as did the speakers coming after him – that the PUP were underdogs here as they are across the country for municipal elections countrywide in March.
But he said he also believes that the incumbents have not done enough – indeed, nothing at all – to justify being reelected on March 4.
In what he calls their three “main functions” – cleaning the drains, fixing the streets, and collecting the garbage – the UDP have failed, said Hyde, and the problem has been compounded by the alleged firing of over 300 workers during the UDP’s tenure.
He encouraged the nominees and their handlers to “think outside the box and be creative in coming up with solutions to the City’s problems.”
Freetown’s Hon. Francis Fonseca spoke next, and then former Caribbean Shores area representative and chair of the PUP’s Eastern Caucus, Jose Coye, addressed the gathering.
Before the formal nomination of the candidates, Albert’s Hon. Mark Espat painted the picture to his listeners as “a fight for Belize.”
After listing a litany of the UDP’s sins in both central and municipal government, Espat told the gathering that this was their chance to send a message to Belmopan: “… that we have been here before, that we may have fallen last year, but we have gotten up, and we will be back!”
The 11 are: for councilors, Keith Acosta; Robert Cadle, Jr.; Jacqueline Welch; Adrian “Danny” Madrid; Jose Roberto Ortiz; Marvin Ottley; Alberto Vellos; Dawna Todd; Dorla Vaughan and Roberto Torres; and for Mayor, Dr. Cecil “Chubby” Reneau, retired Chief Education Officer and former Belize Technical College principal.
Dr. Reneau said that it was “God’s will” that he run for Mayor under the PUP banner.
Party Leader, Hon. John Briceño, closed the proceedings around 5:30 p.m. by reminding the gathering that “the road to Belmopan starts now” and that he believed the party had the best candidates to win on March 4.