Some 62,339 voters cast ballots for Wednesday’s double election in the nine municipalities – two cities and seven towns.
Just before 8:00 this morning, Thursday, after a marathon night of counting – and with all involved keeping an eye on the riveting general election landscape – the United Democratic Party (UDP)’s slate of eleven in Belize City, led by attorney Darrell Bradley, was confirmed the winner in the nation’s largest municipality, confirming that the incumbent UDP hold the majority of seats for the third municipal election running, though reduced by twenty seats from a high of 64 seats in 2009 and 2006, when single elections were held.
Former councilor candidate Bradley led a slate of six returning councilors from former Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers’ second administration, and four newcomers, against a crowded field consisting of the PUP, led by teacher and guidance counselor Karen Bodden; Vision Inspired by the People (VIP)’s slate of seven led by Paco Smith; independent mayoral candidates Stephen Okeke and Ernesto Torres and independent councilor candidate Philip “Fawda” Henry, who broke with his former party, the UDP, after publicly criticizing the running of City Hall during an internal party convention.
Bradley defeated Bodden by a margin of 1,782 votes, 11,181 to 9,399, and led by Chinese-descent incumbent councilor Eric Chang, the UDP slate was returned with an average difference of 3,931 votes over their PUP rivals. The UDP’s other winning candidates were Alifa Elrington-Hyde; Roger Espejo; Alain Gonzalez; Dion Leslie; Bernard Pitts, Jr.; Dean Samuels; Kevin Singh; Michael Theus; and Philip Willoughby.
Robert “Faggy” Ferguson, photographer and resident of Partridge Street, topped the VIP with 1,039 votes, as mayoral candidates Smith, Okeke and Torres struggled with voter support despite their pitches to residents. Smith garnered 741 votes; Okeke, 204; and Torres, 387. Henry, the sole Belize City independent candidate, received 293 votes.
The UDP also swept Corozal, San Ignacio/Santa Elena and Benque Viejo Towns, where voters re-elected incumbent mayors Hilberto Campos and John Francis August, Jr., and elected Miguel Angel Velasquez to replace Nick Ruiz in Benque.
In San Pedro Town, the UDP lost one councilor seat but held the majority, as Daniel Guerrero was elected for the party’s third consecutive term in the council on La Isla Bonita; he replaces Elsa Paz. Guerrero defeated the PUP’s Maria Conchita Flota in a close race, with independent mayoral candidate, Melanie Paz, taking 629 votes.
The nation’s capital, Belmopan, also went to the UDP with a majority of five, but Mayor Simeon Lopez, who won his third term, will share City Hall with two successful PUP councilors, Juan Carlos Alas and Valeriano “Mr. Val Nal” Nal. VIP, who had edged out the PUP in their percentage of the vote in 2009, fell back under former general election candidate Paul Morgan, whose 1,254 votes for Mayor led the yellow pack.
The PUP has swept into power in Orange Walk Town, where Kevin Bernard, who served as a councilor in the 2009-12 term, is now mayor after defeating the UDP slate led by Ivan Leiva.
In Dangriga and Punta Gorda, incumbent UDP mayors Aaron “Jake” Gongora and Floyd Lino respectively were swept out in favour of their PUP rivals, Major H. Gilbert Swaso and former national president of the Belize National Teachers’ Union (BNTU), Anthony Fuentes.
In Punta Gorda, voters re-elected incumbent UDP councilor Fern Gutierrez to join her five PUP rivals in the third split council in the last four elections in the southernmost town.
After seeing historic lows in 2009 in voter turnout, particularly in Belize City, where just 41.94% had turned out, in 2012, all municipalities, due partially to the holding of dual elections, saw significant lifts of at least 10% in overall turnout except for San Pedro, where turnout plummeted to 30.6% (turnout for the general elections here, by contrast, was 68.46%). The average was 64.12%.
The municipal areas cover between them parts of 20 constituencies, although some of them also include rural areas.
The new Mayor wants to hit the ground running. As soon as he is sworn in (the transition from the departing Moya-Flowers to Bradley will be “minor”), he intends to implement a 100-day plan dealing in one part with the restoration of voters’ confidence in City Hall by implementing new rules for city workers and checking the Council’s books, and in another part with an aggressive campaign of infrastructural repair in conjunction with the Ministry of Works, beginning with taking inventory of street conditions.
Bradley said he wishes to extend “an olive branch” to his defeated rivals, inviting them in to contribute to the Council’s plans with their own ideas, and lauded the “professional” nature of the City campaign, which included a number of debates sponsored by private interests.
Regarding how he spent the day and night, Bradley told us that with his experience of working behind the scenes for the party in elections since 1996, he was confident and confirmed in his expectations by the reconciliation of ballots before counting, which showed heavy UDP “solid” votes. He extended thanks to the UDP family, from party officials to campaign workers to supporters and voters; his church and God; City residents and those who helped to make the process work on what was “an extraordinary night.”
When we questioned Prime Minister Dean Barrow as to his reaction to the news of the party’s reduced overall majority and what that meant in terms of how his incoming government would treat a council whose members were of the opposing party, he acknowledged to Amandala that in the municipalities of Orange Walk, Punta Gorda and Dangriga, there was a clear swing against the UDP and in favour of the PUP as a result of the general election results in those areas; conversely, in areas where the UDP won the general election vote, they also won the municipal vote.
According to P.M. Barrow, the UDP will not attempt to punish municipalities who voted against them, and committed to being “scrupulously fair” to PUP-led municipalities, distributing subventions and other allocated resources in a timely and fair manner.
While PUP leader Francis Fonseca pointed out that the party had yet to receive official results, he held out hope that the incoming Government would respect and not “play politics” with the municipal bodies under blue control, and thanked party supporters in the Sugar City and down south for their support.
The VIP’s Paco Smith spoke to us around midnight Thursday morning at the Institute for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (ITVET), the central counting location for Belize City.
Counting was not complete at that time, and Smith was suitably reserved, telling us that while voters appear to be discontented with the two major parties, PUP and UDP, the vote count shows that they are “not dissatisfied enough” to make the complete break he deems necessary for a change in Belize City.
Smith called for continuing voter education and a renewed effort to unite the mostly fractured third party and independent movement, saying to us that the movement must continue and that “I am not into any sort of moral victory.” He added that should voters want change as they say they do, they “cannot look to the source of the problem for its solution.”
For the non-traditional candidates to start succeeding, said Smith, voters must be helped to reach a level of critical thought necessary to break the hold of the two major parties, and that civil society must fill in “the missing puzzle pieces” that the politicians miss. Anyone willing to offer themselves must “be vibrant, invigorated and committed to the cause.”
Neither the VIP, Benque Association (AB) nor the People’s National Party (PNP), which ran a slate in Punta Gorda, attracted enough support in their municipalities to cause much disquiet to the PUP and UDP, a disappointment in light of a more successful profile in 2009.
The sole bright light was Melanie Paz in San Pedro Town, who according to reports reaching us, had been courted by both major parties on the island.
All elected councils will serve a term of three years in office.