Fresh from nominating their 31 candidates nationwide on Nomination Day, Monday, January 21, the Blue machine rolled into the Bliss this morning full steam ahead.
As the Opposition United Democratic Party’s supporters had done at the BelChina Bridge on January 16, hundreds of PUP faithful packed the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts this morning at 10 a.m., while others sat in specially prepared tents outside in the chilly weather, or listening to the radio and watching television coverage, to hear the ruling party’s proposals for their third straight term in office if elected on February 7.
But that was where the similarities ended. Today’s program featured no long speeches, other than the welcome by PUP Chairman Francis Fonseca, and remarks by Prime Minister Said Musa, which all finished in a brisk eighty minutes.
The Blues let technology do the talking. Giant screens played adverts featuring the PUP’s 12 pledges to Belizeans, many of them heard before, such as more jobs (this time, 20,000 instead of 15,000), salary increases for public officers (if they can get the Public Service Union and the National Trade Union Congress to budge), expansion of NHI, laptops for all schoolchildren and a lower cost of living for their parents (no matter what!), and other promises.
The PUP’s official campaign song was “Believe in Belize.”
As the Hon. Musa put it to their supporters today, “There are those who promise change. There are those who talk about change. And then there is the People’s United Party, who brings change… change is not a word, it is an action.”
The manifesto, according to the P.M., covers the social sector, economy, political reform (the linchpin of which is the proposal of an elected Senate), and culture. Musa believes his party’s record on these sectors, in addition to the promises in this manifesto, will return them to Independence Hill in February.