2024-03-07 - Channel 5 Belize

P.U.P. Routs U.D.P. in Municipals: 8 to 1

The People’s United Party remains on top after steamrolling all political opponents, including the United Democratic Party which it soundly defeated during the municipal elections on Wednesday. Tonight, we’ll begin with a recap of what transpired across the country on election day and how the blue machine overwhelmed the U.D.P. across all cities and towns with the exception of San Ignacio/Santa Elena. We’ll also show you what the Opposition Leader says following the stunning loss at the polls. Here’s News Five’s Isani Cayetano to begin our post election coverage.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The opposition, as well as all third parties and independent candidates, was walloped at the polls on Wednesday by the People’s United Party. In hindsight, this bold prediction, initially made on Nomination Day by Party Leader Shyne Barrow, will likely go down in history as egg on his face.

Isani Cayetano

“What is your confidence on the ground, in terms of the municipal slates across all nine cities and towns.”

Shyne Barrow, Leader, United Democratic Party (File: February 21^st, 2024)

“I want the Belizean people to see, with all humility, this is my projection. Nine, nine municipalities and it is not farfetched. There was a time where the United Democratic Party administered all nine municipality and no municipality was out of reach.”

Despite its best efforts, the United Democratic Party was trounced in Belize City, one of the most hotly contested municipalities in the country. By the time the ballots were being counted, halfway through the process, the PUP had already claimed victory over the Old Capital.

Bernard Wagner, Returning Mayor, Belize City

“I always have to say thank you to the people of Belize City and I also have to thank God, he has been the person behind me. I have to thank my family, I have to thank all the people of Belize City. But clearly, some of the indicators, essentially, are really significant from some of the key polling areas, constituencies of Lake-I, Pickstock, Freetown, Caribbean Shores. Clearly those numbers that we are seeing and are being forwarded to myself, we’re looking, pretty, pretty good.”

A total of four hundred and fifty-two thousand, seventy-three ballots were cast during yesterday’s elections in Belize City. Of that amount, roughly sixty-three percent of votes were in favor of the ruling People’s United Party. For the UDP, things got off to a slow start and ended in much the same way.

Dr. Nelma Jones Mortis, U.D.P. Mayoral Candidate, Belize City

“If you notice, I think, thus far, when I checked, I think about three hundred and twenty of our pledges have cast their vote. Each standard bearer is responsible for their constituency and for bringing out the vote. We collaborate with them, in terms of when people approach us, we pass it on to the standard bearers. So each standard bearer has their machinery set up.”

It’s the same approach that was employed by the P.U.P. area representatives. In Freetown, Francis Fonseca was able to secure seventy-six percent of the twenty thousand, eight hundred and five votes. In contrast, the UDP only had four thousand, two hundred and seven votes, or roughly twenty percent of that total.

Francis Fonseca, Area Representative, Freetown

“So we have a very experienced team in Freetown and so we have a very clear plan. So today has been all about executing that plan. You know, we’ve been campaigning with the team with Mayor Wagner and the city council team over the past few months, since the start of the year, and the campaign has been very good. They’ve been warmly received in Freetown, both in Belama and here in King’s Park.”

Taken as a whole, the turnout in Belize City, as in other municipalities, was lower than expected.

Alisha Craig, U.D.P. Councilor Candidate, Belize City

“I wish it was higher. I just checked the polls and they say it’s only about nine thousand out of thirty thousand. So, you know, that’s not really good, but maybe it’s a good sign as well. Like I said, that’s where the machinery, getting your taxis and everything in place to get out your voters. I think that’s what’s going to decide who wins the elections.”

Dr. Nelma Mortis

“ I was a bit disappointed in the low voters turnout, but I walked in confidence and I walked in confidence because I have put in the work and I have shared my vision and it’s up to the workers to decide who or what they expect for Belize City. And so, I did my best. I’ll be Nelma Mortis tomorrow, the same Nelma Mortis tomorrow.”

On the other hand, despite a low voter turnout, Eluide Miller was optimistic and remained so for the duration of the voting process, as well as the counting later in the evening.

Eluide Miller, P.U.P. Councilor Candidate, Belize City

“I’m feeling very excited seeing our residents flowing in to cast their votes. It’s a really beautiful moment and so we’ve been working very hard over the past couple weeks, past couple months and so it all comes down to today. Today is what matters most. I am very excited and yeah, I’m happy.”

Ultimately, returning mayor Bernard Wagner has secured a third term in office, along with his team of ten councilors, five of whom are carrying over from the previous Belize City Council.

Isani Cayetano

“It’s rare that we see, if perhaps not the first time that we’re seeing someone go for three consecutive terms in municipal office.”

Bernard Wagner

“I am telling you it’s overwhelming for me, personally. Really overwhelming. When I started in 2018, I could never conceive in my own mind that at some point in time I would be grappling with the idea of being a three-term mayor. But I believe in the will of the people and clearly the people in Belize City have spoken resoundingly again. And so, we are really excited to be able to serve the people again.”

Isani Cayetano for News Five.

P.U.P. Slate Dominates in Belmopan

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.”

Burns ran on the support of former Belmopan U.D.P. Area Representative, John Saldivar. He was Burn’s campaign manager, but remained out of the spotlight throughout the course of the day. Saldivar showed up to vote half an hour before the polling stations closed.

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.

Pablo Cawich

“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.

PM Briceño Believes in Alignment of Governments

The harmony between the municipal and central government, based on the party in power, has been a topic of much discussion leading up to yesterday’s national vote. While it can be argued that municipalities should remain autonomous, it can also be debated that the alignment of both forms of government bodes well for initiatives being undertaken in all cities and town. Prime Minister John Briceño believes in the positioning of both entities for optimal performance.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I think it speaks well for the party, both a national and local level because we have been ensuring that we are performing at the local level and one of the things that we did when we had a meeting with all of the mayoral candidates about three Mondays ago. And we’re telling them now that at the national level, I think that we have even a greater responsibility to be able to monitor them closer to ensure that they are living up to the manifesto promises and that also they can be managing the finances as best as possible, as efficient as possible and then we could join with them, that we believe we can do a lot more. For instance, my community development fund , I give twelve thousand of my community development fund, I pass it on to the town council because then we could double that money because we could buy materials with the money that that provides and the town council has the manpower to be able to do whatever small projects we want to do. Also this speaks well for central government because it shows that people are feeling the good work of what we’re doing, reducing unemployment by 3.2%, reducing the national debt from a 133% to 63% to be able to grow the economy much faster than IMF ever thought possible. These things have a positive effect on the lives of people.”

Opposition Leader Reviews U.D.P. Failure At Polls

As we reported earlier, Leader of the Opposition, Moses “Shyne” Barrow predicted a clean sweep for the United Democratic Party across all nine municipalities. Well, tonight Barrow is admitting that he erred in making such a prediction. But, he says the U.D.P.’s failure at the polls was not all the party’s fault. He contends that foreign government interference and the People’s United Party’s increased infrastructural investments leading up to the municipals persuaded voters.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“In our democracy the people have to be convinced that the decision they are making is the right ne and unfortunately in Belize there were rampant foreign interference. You had foreign governments donating sixteen million dollars grants weeks before the elections, one million dollar grant in Belmopan to build houses, sixty days before the elections. Those things are disgusting and blatant interference. You have BTB fifty million dollar bond used for municipal projects sixty days before the elections for the candidates and you had this whirlwind blitz of government resources being used, national government resources being used to convince the people that something was happening. The other part is that we have more work to do as a political organization. Our candidates have more work to do to make sure we can penetrate all of the interference, whether it is foreign governments, the tens of millions of dollars being spent on elections, obviously the opposition cannot match that dollar for dollar. The way we could match it is through our capacity, our intellectual capacity, personalities and all the things that make you a potential area representative. I think we need to do work as far as strengthening our capacities so that we can convince people that despite them being plied with treats that we still have the highest cost of living ever, ramped crime corruption, the stevedores have a problem, the caneros have a problem, the teachers have a problem, right on the eve of elections.”

U.D.P. Defeated in Municipals, Leader Says His Name Was Not on the Ballot

But, what do the unfavorable results on March sixth for the U.D.P. say about the organization’s leader? He says his name was not on the ballot and that it was a team effort. According to Barrow, the U.D.P. has scheduled a postmortem and a National Party Council meeting where they will have the difficult discussions about the party’s future.

Moses “Shyne’ Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“We as a political organization, every member, this is a team effort. I was not on the ballot. We were all championing the cause of the United Democratic Party but standard bearers and the councilor candidates had the specific task of the day and we need to do a postmortem which we have scheduled shortly and do some analysis and really see where the fat is that we need to cut and we need to narrow down our focus to eighteen or nineteen divisions. If I can accept blame for anything my error is on strategic miscalculation as far as going after all nine. It is clear that was impractical and so rather than pouring resources into an additional four municipalities we should have focused on the five in reach. Obviously Santa Elena, San Ignacio, PG which we won, then on a recount we lost by twenty-five votes, I am asking for another recount to make sure the integrity of the vote is in order and there is no stealing of the vote. In Benque and Dangriga, I believe if we would have focused all the resources there we would have fared much better. So moving forward we are going to have a national party council so that we can decide the way forward.”

Mixed Council Elected in Twin Towns

Moving west to the twin towns of San Ignacio/ Santa Elena, the only municipality where the United Democratic Party gained some grounds. The U.D.P. secured six of the seven seats that were up for grabs. That is four more seats than what they claimed in the 2021 municipal elections. But, it was not the clean sweep they were hoping for. Residents also elected one People’s United Party councilor candidate, leading to yet another mixed council in that municipality. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

Paul Lopez, Reporting

In March 2021, residents of San Ignacio and Santa Elena elected a mixed council with a People’s United Party majority. Mayor Earl Trapp and Bernadette Fernandez were the only two UDP representatives on the council during the last term. At the start of the day on Wednesday, the incumbent mayor was among the first to cast his ballot.

Earl Trapp, U.D.P. Mayor Elect, SI/SE

“We have been living in crisis lately, so this is a stepping stone, this is the initiation to stepping into the general elections. So, certainly this is very important for us. We want to win at least four to five municipalities and then I believe we are ready for general elections. The people are suffering and we need to bring a turning point and we need to bring back the lives of people to normalcy.”

The People’s United Party, on the other hand, had its machinery working on the ground in the twin towns. PUP Area Representative for Cayo North, Michel Chebat, was present to give his support to this machinery. The polling station in Chebat’s constituency was the largest in the municipality.

Michel Chebat, P.U.P. Area Representative, Cayo North

“This morning we were very busy, from about seven o’clock and we had a very steady pace till about eleven o’clock and between eleven and one it slowed down a little bit but now again, we have been busy and from about three o’clock it has been going really crazy.”

Reporter

“How soon do you think you will see some victory today because I know that is what you will be projecting.”

Michel Chebat

“Well I don’t like to count my chicken before they hatch but from what we are seeing out here Cayo North looks very positive, but this is the biggest polling station in this area. We have seventeen boxes here. So this will be the last one to finish counting.”

At the close of the polls, U.D.P. supporters appeared energized and in high spirit. U.D.P. councilor candidate Lin Valentine was optimistic that the votes were leaning in his party’s favor.

Lin Valentine, U.D.P. Councilor Elect, SI/SE

“Everything was very smooth and I appreciate that we didn’t have no back and forth with one another and I appreciate that about our people here. We showed that unity and I want it to continue this way. That has shown us that we are a people of one.”

Reporter

“I notice that some of your other candidates like Mr. Fernandez is still trying to get some voters in.”

Lin Valentine

“Yeah, that is the energy we show. WE are here fighting for our grass roots. I believe we are going through serious punishment at the moment so we are coming with changes, with new changes.”

Rutilia Gabriel, Returning Officer

“Overall at six o’clock in the municipality of San Ignacio, Santa Elena, eight thousand one eighty-six person voted, out of the thirteen thousand seven, twenty-nine. That represents a percentage of fifty- nine point six three.”

The figures for voter turnout at the end of the day in San Ignacio/ Santa Elena represented a three-percent increase when compared to the 2021 municipal elections. A couple hours into counting and there was no clear indication as to which of the candidates were in the lead. There were ballot boxes that favored each slate. But as the process continued, votes in favor of the United Democratic Party’s candidates started to trend upward. And, before any official results were announced, PUP candidates and supporters began leaving the counting station. Trapp then preliminarily announced that his full slate would be elected.

Earl Trapp

“Unofficially the, we will have a full UDP slate here in San Ignacio and Santa Elena.”

Reporter

“So, what is taking so long and were there any close vote?”

Earl Trapp

“Yes that is correct, the results were close with one of the PUP candidates, hence the reason why they are taking more time to review the addition.”

Reporter

“So that can still go either way?”

Earl Trapp

“Yes, like I say it is unofficial, but when we plug the results into our system it indicated seven UDP.”

Reporter

“In terms of your unofficial margin is it substantial?”

Earl Trapp

“It is big enough to call it a clean slate.”

Counting continued all the way pass midnight because of the slim margin of votes between a UDP and PUP councilor candidate. And, when the official results were announced, the United Democratic Party emerged with six seats, including the mayoral position. The People’s United Party’s Aaron Mai secured the seventh and final seat. Once again, the twin towns will be lead by mixed town council. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

Benque Stays Blue Amidst Close Competition

The People’s United Party secured another victory in the town of Benque Viejo Del Carmen but the victory did not come as easily as it did in other municipalities, as there was only an eighteen point six disparity between blue and red votes. A total of two thousand, eight hundred sixty-four ballots were cast, with fifty-nine point three percent of those votes going to the P.U.P.; as opposed to the forty point seven accumulated by the U.D.P. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with the story.

Britney Gordon, Reporting

The morning started off slow, with only two hundred sixty-nine voters showing up within the first hour. The low voter turnout would persist through the entirety of the day, dropping as low as one hundred thirty-five during what should have been a midday spike. With a turnout this low, PUP Mayoral candidate Jorge Rosales stated that he was feeling nervous for the day to come.

Jorge Rosales, Mayoral Elect, Benque

“Right now. I am a little bit nervous trying to get all the people squared up to come and vote.”

Although anxious, Rosales expressed optimism for a higher voter turnout midday, although that would later fail to be accomplished as it would reach its all-time low for the day.

Jorge Rosales

“So I think people are coming, but it’s a right now. It may be about seventy percent of movement has been maybe about one o’clock, two o’clock. Things will be a little bit stronger because people are have to do their like launch. And so after one o’clock, I think people will be more stronger around.”

Area representative for Cayo North, Michel Chebat noted that the activity finally picked up around three p.m. and attributed the initial slow pace to the work day.

Michel Chebat, Area Represenative, Cayo North

“You know what? I think the work the work day affected many people because, you know, the employers are not giving so much time. They’re giving one or two hours and we have many voters who live outside of the constituency. So they need a little bit more than that. And so I think that’s why you’re seeing the rush now because they’ve just been let out, so to speak.”

Despite the heightened spirits due to a rise in voters, Chebat was hesitant to predict a victory for the PUP candidates before the end of the day.

Michel Chebat

“Well, you know, I don’t like to count my chicken before they hatch. But you know, from what we’ve been seeing out here, Cayo North looks very positive. But this is the biggest polling station in this area. We actually have fourteen boxes here. And so this seventy-three will be the last one to finish counting. So we’re gonna probably see this around eleven to midnight tonight.”

After the last polling box was collected, an update on the total number of voters revealed that a little less than sixty percent of registered voters showed up to vote that day.

Jose Sanchez, Reporter

“So for polling station eighty-three, the last count for six p.m., there were four hundred thirty eight voters. There was a surge at the end. When you add it on to the one thousand one hundred nineteen people who already voted, we’ve had a total of two thousand three hundred fifty-seven for polling station eighty-three. For polling station eighty-four now, at last count at six p.m. there were only eighty-one people who came in. You add it on to the four hundred twenty people who voted throughout the day at eighty-four, gives us a grand total of five hundred one for polling station eighty four in Cayo. Now when you add up the totals for the day, between the two thousand three hundred fifty-and the five o’ one, and that brings us to, two thousand eight hundred fifty- eight people who voted today in Benque from the total of four thousand eight hundred sisteen registered voters.”

Despite the low turnout initially, the P.U.P. was able to secure a victory that night, winning all six councillor seats and another mayoral term for Jorge Rosales. Britney Gordon for News Five.

P.U.P. Claims Dangriga Town Council

The People’s United Party was also victorious in Dangriga, where its Mayoral candidate, Robert Mariano led a team of six councillor candidates. The day’s events also went smoothly, for the most part, except for an instance when people wearing party colours were restricted from entering certain areas of the polling stations. News Five’s Marion Ali has the details.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Akirah Sanchez, Returning Officer, Dangriga Elections

“The results of the Dangriga Municipal Elections are as follows: Herbert Lucas, 893 votes. Frank Caliz, 950. Adeline Estero, 957. Cindy Fajaro, 900. Anthony Garbutt, 984. Stephen Laurie, 1,042. Duane Sampson, 1,145. That’s for the UDP slate. For the PUP slate, it goes as follows: Robert Mariano, 1,697. Gilberto Bernardez, 1,471. Gilroy Howard Flores, 1,505. Howard Melendrez, 1,511. Martha Robinson, 1,462. Liberato Teul, 1,422. Jerry’s Valentine 1,588. For the winners being the PUP slate. They have been elected as the next Dangriga Municipal Town Council.”

Returning Officer for Dangriga, Akirah Sanchez gave the news that most of the residents already knew, having chosen who they wanted to serve. The two mayoral candidates had early plans to garner the support of the voters.

Hubert Alex Lucas, U.D.P. Mayoral Candidate, Dangriga

“The plan for today is to get our people out to the polling areas so they can vote and get people out.”

Gwen Nunez Gonzalez

So what is your strategy to mobilize the people here?”

Hubert Alex Lucas

“We’re gonna have our people out, bringing the people to the polls so they can vote.”

Robert Mariano, P.U.P. Mayoral Candidate, Dangriga

“The main thing for today is to bring in the voters. That’s the number one thing, but see how I don’t want to discuss that. But, yes over the past few weeks, we have been preparing for today. The, machine is well on and we are now taking action. As you can see, several of our People’s United Party supporters are out already in numbers and I’m sure that at the day, victory will prevail for the People’s United Party.”

During the course of the day, there was an issue when one of the election officials announced that people who were wearing political colours could not enter the compound to vote. But after a peaceful protest, that decision was soon reversed. Our Dangriga Correspondent for the elections, Gwen Nunez Gonzalez spoke with the U.D.P.’s Campaign Coordinator, Norman Usher about the issue.

Norman Usher, Campaign Coordinator, U.D.P. Dangriga

“The police officers did not want any person to go vote if they had on a party colour and their party name on it. Any advertisement for a party, they didn’t allow them to go in, which is wrong. We had a meeting from last week with the returning officers and they told us the only people that cannot enter the classrooms are those that are working with a political shirt. Others that come in and vote can vote with their political shirts. That’s their right. That’s our right. That’s what we do every election. We came here, both sides, it’s not just one, it’s not, it wasn’t just one. But, we finally got it resolved.”

Dangriga Mayor-elect, Robert Mariano says he will focus on infrastructure, drainage, and more social programs for the youths. Marion Ali for News Five.

Wally Nunez Leads Six P.U.P. Councillors Back to SP Town Hall

The electorate also sent a resounding message in La Isla Bonita on Election Day, as the blue machine proved to be far more effective. Wally Nunez and his slate of six councilors were returned to serve on the town council for a second consecutive term in a town that was, prior to that, predominantly U.D.P. territory. Voters began to stream in steadily soon after the polls opened and then waned a bit around the lunch hour, but picked up again towards the close of the polls. All in all, the voting went peacefully, with both major political parties shuttling their supporters to the polls and the only independent candidate meeting people just before they entered the polling stations. At the end of it all, the P.U.P. team led by Wally Nunez blew away the competition by a rough ratio of three to one. For the P.U.P. team, they collected votes in the three thousand series, while the U.D.P. slate received votes in the one thousand series. Independent Mayoral Candidate, Abner Bacab got sixty-three votes. News Five’s Marion Ali did the honours on Election Day coverage in San Pedro and filed this report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Things got off to a fairly busy start when the polls opened in San Pedro and remained that way for a few hours, with voters forming decent lines at the two polling stations. And from as early as then, the three mayoral candidates were out trying to win those votes.

Wilfredo Alamilla, U.D.P. Mayoral Candidate, San Pedro

“We have been listening to the people. We have been campaigning since, October and what we’re doing, we’ve been doing some canvassing. We have been getting their basic information, and we asked them that we really want to hear from them, because we take it as a plan of work with listening to their concerns.”

Wally Nunez, P.U.P. Mayoral Candidate, San Pedro

“It was quite good. It’s energetic. I can say it was quite a lot of work today, but it was good because to me, I believe we will become successful at the end of the day the people who came out, there’s loud and clear, you can see it from all over town that they support this sort of movement.”

Abner Bacab, Independent Candidate, San Pedro

“Actually, I didn’t do any campaign. But, on the last two months, last week, I’ve been doing my campaign, like I said, since I brought my ambulance three to four years ago. So, all the people I help, they know what I do, they know what I’ve been doing here in San Pedro.”

Marion Ali

“You don’t have a council team. Why is that?”

Abner Bacab

“That is a very important question. I like your questions. I’m gonna answer it, and I hope I can answer it. Here, it’s been in the pipeline for many years, me running for council. This time, I was – I hadn’t decided. It was more people asking me to run.”

Throughout the day, the voters kept the process peaceful, but the police presence was evident. Assistant Commissioner, Howell Gillett was dispatched to San Pedro to oversee the management of the police presence.

ACP Howell Gillett, Officer in Charge, San Pedro Elections

“There’s no report to us that anything has gone wrong, but our officers, as you have seen, are in place. We – the community itself is abiding. Today is a special day in terms of it’s an election, but also there are some restrictions for liquor premises and everybody in our view is abiding by it. And if not, if we are alerted to it, then we address it right away.”

Indeed by the end of the day, there were no crime-related incidents and the polls closed without a hitch. The U.D.P’s former legal advisor, Orson Elrington was on the island as legal counsel for the U.D.P San Pedro slate. He explained to us what his role was for the day.

Orson “OJ” Elrington, Legal Advisor, U.D.P. Municipal Slate, San Pedro

“Legal counsel becomes most important at counting time, wherever there are any legal issues that arise. Legal issues arise every so often, but most of the time legal issues normally arise at the time of counting as you would know.

Marion Ali

“Pertaining to how ballots are cast.”

Orson OJ Elrington

“Correct, absolutely, whether or not a ballot can be considered valid or not, whether or not a ballot is a spoilt ballot or not, if there’s any infraction of the Election Rules, anything of that sort, right on the process is supposed to be conducted.”

As the residents and the candidates waited to hear the results, the aspirants from the major political parties were confident.

Wilfredo Alamilla

“I feel so positive. I feel so good because I have accomplished something that I really wanted to do in my life. And then I’m here today. It’s done and we just have to wait for the results. And I feel happy. I’m very positive, and whatever it is, I respect the position of the people.”

Wally Nunez

“The figures the way we’re seeing it, we are, we’re leading the way.”

Marion Ali

“In terms of the voter turnout?

Wally Nunez

“Voter turnout, it was roughly around the same, or a little less than the last. Less than 69%? Less than 69%. And I understand there was a lot of people who couldn’t make it because of work, some people couldn’t travel. But we’re confident that we have the support we were looking for.”

In the end, Nunez was victorious, as announced by the Returning Officer, Gian Cho.

Gian Cho, Returning Officer, San Pedro Elections

“Wally Nunez, Mayor, 3,651 total votes, 3,651. Dianelli Aranda, Councilor, 3,730 votes. Adali Ayuso, Councilor, 3,668 votes. Ernesto Bardales, Councilor, 3,527 votes, Jose Castellanos, Councilor, 3,535 votes, Johnnia Duarte, Councilor, 3,573 votes and Marina Graniel Kay, Councilor, 3, 611 votes. I therefore hereby declare the winner of the San Pedro elections as the P.U P. slate.”

Returning mayor Wally Nunez is ready to go back to work.

Marion Ali

“Mr. Mayor, how soon will you, return to office? And what will be the first thing that you will do?”

Wally Nunez

“We’re planning tomorrow to get back to work. And we’re planning to do the swearing in so that we can continue the work for the island.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

The total number of voters who turned out in San Pedro was five thousand four hundred and four out of a total of eight thousand seven hundred and four.

Mayor “Mad Bull” Sheppard Returns to O.W. Town Council

In Sugar City, returning Mayor Ladrick Sheppard and his team of six town councilors are back in office. Here’s correspondent Dalila Ical with that story from Orange Walk.