Dennis “Desho” Williams Prepares for Toledo East By-Election

As we have reported, the People’s United Party elected Osmond Martinez as its candidate in Toledo East during a recent party convention. He is set to go up against the People’s National Party’s Wil Maheia and the United Democratic Party’s Dennis “Desho” Williams. We heard from Williams for the first time today when he made an appearance on Open Your Eyes. Williams spoke about the challenges that residents are facing in the constituency and a few of his plans to address those issues. Here is a bit of what he had to say this morning.

 

Dennis “Desho” Williams, U.D.P. Standard Bearer, Toledo East

“I enjoy the satisfaction I get from just assisting people and many of my colleagues told me mein you like to help out, why not take it up. It was a long, hard, though decision because it is not my kind of thing to be in the forefront. I am more of a street soldier for the party and working hard. But I decided to take it up. It is extremely challenging because the size of the constituency alone is extremely difficult. My furthest village is seventy-two miles north, that is Monkey River, then you have sixty miles south. One of the biggest issues in the rural areas is the maya land rights issue. That is the one of the main sticking points and as you go that is one of the questions they ask. And, my response to them is that well I spoke to my party leader Honorable Shyne and he says that we are a law abiding country and if the court rules something then we have to abide by it you know. I am no expert. I just go by what the court says. It does not really affect me, like us living in town. It affects them and their future because they are complaining about the one kilometer outside of their village. They say that is not enough. I spoke to like I said Shyne, he has a lot of connection, we would benefit greatly from a call center in P.G., there is none. We have graduates from U.B., Highschool that has great command of the English language. But they have to leave, and some go to Harvest Caye, some to Belmopan to seek employment and one of the cries I hear from them is that it is difficult to further their education if they have to leave home to find work. So, a simple thing like a call center with five hundred jobs would create a lot of employment and we don’t need central government to do that. When it comes to tourism that is not something we can do right now, but we have the full package when t comes to Toledo, we have the reef, we have the Cayes, the Maya temples, falls, cave tubing, we have everything. But, the B.T.B. has done nothing to create employment there.”