The entire People’s United Party’s slate won convincingly in the City of Belmopan. This is the second straight municipal victory for the P.U.P. in the Capital City. In a municipality with ten thousand registered voters, fifty-five percent showed up to cast their ballots. That is a two percent increase from the 2021 municipal elections voters’ turnout. But unlike past years, the majority of those registered voters were from Belmopan East, where both Mayor Elect Pablo Cawich and Area Representative Oscar Mira reside. This is also the second consecutive loss for Jacklyn Burns as the United Democratic Party’s mayoral candidate in Belmopan. News Five’s Paul Lopez was in the Garden City. He filed the following report.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Belmopan voters began streaming into their respective polling stations as early as seven a.m. when the polls were opened. Between seven and eight a.m., a total of five hundred and seventy-nine voters had already cast their ballots. We spoke with a few voters to get a sense of their thought process going into the polling stations.
Jasmine Rhamdas, Belmopan Voter
“I look for someone like myself, a leader, someone that goes out and work for us, I don’t want anyone to think about themselves. Because being mayor or councilor we need you guys to step up and work for the community.”
Christopher Broaster, Belmopan Voter
“Election time is one of those important time of the year where we come out to make our voices be heard and to put in the people that we believe will help move our area forward you know.”
Both political camps had their machineries on the ground working. And if the number of political shirts on each side was a foreshadowing of how the day would end, the People’s United Party would have won at the start of the elections. But, the polls were still open and both slates remained confident of a victory.
Chris Enriquez, P.U.P. Councilor Elect, Belmopan
“I think our supporters are coming out. So far like I said this morning was a bit slow but it is starting to pick up. This afternoon we are going to see majority of our supporters are out. We are confident and we are just going to wait until the results are out.”
Jacklyn Burns, U.D.P. Mayoral Candidate, Belmopan
“You know when you do your homework you are confident in the grade you are going to get. I have done my homework. I have walked in many house as I could. Now it is just to get our voters out to cast their votes.”
The lowest number of voter turnout was between twelve and one p.m., but those numbers began to increase throughout the afternoon. And by five p.m. more than four thousand Belmopan voters had already cast their votes.
Pablo Cawich, P.U.P. Mayor Elect, Belmopan
“The day in my view went very well. The machinery executed what it had to do and in our view this victory has been sealed.”
Jacklyn Burns
“You know when you do your homework you don’t get scared when the teacher asked the tough questions. I am like eight-five percent confident, that is where it is.”
John Saldivar, Former U.D.P. Area Rep, Belmopan
“Now I am coming to vote. I will put my ex there for my team. All morning I have been working hard to make sure that things work out well and I am very happy with the results so far and I am waiting on the counting, I am very confident.”
Polling stations closed at six p.m. At the end of the day a total of five thousand, five hundred and eighty-five registered voters exercised their democratic right in Belmopan. Boxes from two other polling stations began arriving at the counting station an hour later and the counting process officially began. By nine p.m., unofficial numbers began trickling out of the counting room. Early indications were that Cawich and his team were in the lead, much to the delight of the PUP supporters who were on the outside waiting. Three hours into the counting process, Area Representative Oscar Mira emerged to unofficially declare victory for the PUP in Belmopan.
Oscar Mira, Area Representative, Belmopan
“Unofficially but we have won in Belmopan, the east has won significantly, the west has won significantly, in central we were even, we won north. Unofficially, but in Belmopan the People’s United Party remains in City Council.”
But it was not until midnight that the official counting process was over and a winner was declared in the Capital City. Chris Enriquez received the most votes for the day, while most of Cawich’s slate won by five hundred to a thousand votes.
“The first thing we need to do is to get into the city council and start doing an analysis as to what is presently in place and what has been happening over the past term.”
Jackyln Burns
“The people have spoken. This is the electoral process, congratulations to the winners. I need time to sleep, with that said goodnight.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
