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The council convention managed to draw a respectable 4,242 voters to select a 10 councillor candidates out of 16 aspirants. Who did they pick? 7News was there to find out:..

Daniel Ortiz reporting
The compound of the ITVET was busy all through the day, as sizeable crowds of City residents kept streaming in and out. They were there to decide who would represent the UDP for the Belize City Council Elections, to be held next year. There were quite a number of new faces to choose from.

Deon Sutherland - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"I am running for councilor along with 16 others vying for the council title of the election in March. I am Deon Sutherland, I am a teacher by profession. I work out at the Ministry of Education at this present time."

Reporter
"Is it that you are choosing to start at a lower scale since you were not successful against Mark King?"

Percy Lewis - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"Yes you can put it that way."

Reporter
"Sir, tell us what you plan to offer to the people?"

Percy Lewis - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"My expertise is climate change. I have a masters in sustainable development, so they are short of social scientist in the current slate."

Phillip Singh - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"I am a new comer here. I am probably the underdog here, but in no light will I be the last one standing. I'll be the only man standing."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, given that your cousin has been in office at City Hall, do you believe that's going to be plus that's going to help you along since the same name is already there as a city councilor?"

Phillip Singh - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"Not to put any bash on my family, but to be honest with you the Singh name just became a reality because Phillip Singh came to Belize City Council. You weren't hearing Singh all the years, you are hearing Singh now because I am here."

Freddy Cantilliano - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"Today the Belizean people showed the United Democratic Party that it's ready for the party, that the love has not been last as yet, that the United Democratic Party is in the best shape possible."

Sampson Jacobs - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"The support was great. I did last minute campaigning and overall the support was great for me because I am the youngest candidate and because I am the new face to this whole campaign and election thing it has been great from families, co-workers and the general public."

Daniel Ortiz
"Do you expect when the numbers are tallied that you will be one of those selected, or are you hoping for the best?"

Sampson Jacobs - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"I am hoping for the best, but if I am not successful, there is always room for improvement and I could try again."

Noreen Martinez - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"I am not the first on the election because the last convention I was a candidate, but the second time around I think I will be a councilor, so I am confident of that."

Jason Edwards - Aspirant, UDP CitCo Slate
"I am extremely happy with the turn out today and I am pretty comfortable of the work that I did and I will find out at the end of the night if it paid off."

Hyacinth Latchman-Cuellar - Past City Councilor/Current Candidate
"Very much impressed by the turn out today. It actually goes to show that people they want other people in there apart from what is there, the eight that is there now, so they decided we got to go out and we got to make that additional two. I am very happy of the turnout. I did not expect so much but very happy of the Belize City residents that came out today."

And while a few of those newcomers were actually seasoned in the art of party politics, in some instances, newcomers were looking to unseat the current group of City Councillors who have another 6 or so months to serve in office. The incumbents were confident about their chances of holding their seats on the UDP slate. They were also looking beyond this convention, expecting the Belize City voters to re-elect them.

Dr. Alain Gonzalez - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"I've been in the city council for the last two and a half years and I can contest and say that we have done a very good job as councilors. I personally have done a very good job as a councilor."

Dion Leslie - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"It's telling, while walking all over the different constituencies, basically people told us they are coming out to show gratitude for what the city council has done in the city over the past two and a half years and that was clear as daylight today here at ITVETT where people came out in droves, people came out in the thousands to show support not only for the city council, but for the United Democratic Party."

Daniel Ortiz
"Are you confident that you will be re-elected? Are you expecting to be a part of the ten selected here tonight?"

Bernard "BQ" Pitts Jr. - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"I do expect to be a part of the ten simply because we have done our work, we have delivered to the city residents and I see no reason why we shouldn't be return to office. We still have a lot more to offer."

Michael Theus - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"It speaks of the vibrancy of the party and of how good the work that we as the current council have basically done, so I anticipate it would have been pretty much a good turnout."

Dean Samuels - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"Really and truly for a convention that was not publicized I think the public really still came out."

Alifa Elrington-Hyde - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"I think that we've done quite a bit. I think that we came out hard and we worked hard and we try service our citizens. I mean you have to make hard decisions at times and decisions that people won't be happy with, but that's what a municipal authority do and central government for that matter. You have to make the hard decisions, so we have made some hard decisions and we've taken the lash for it. But I think that we've done well enough that the citizens are confident that we should have another term."

The mayor, who's been at the helm of the administration that those Councillors are trying to get back into, didn't face a challenge today. Yet, he was still out in support of all the candidates, and also there to get a heat check from today's voters.

Mayor Darrell Bradley - Endorsed For March 2015
"I was surprised that this is an election that doesn't have a mayoral candidate in it being contested. Its off season as you will in terms of the political foray. We are not looking at a municipal election which would be joint with a central government election which in those years you tend to have an upswing in voter turnout, but at this convention you have a healthy amount of people coming out and actively supporting. At the last count I got a report that the voter turnout was 2400 votes and that was at 1:30pm, so we are seeing an inflow of people coming out and I think that that is as a result of people responding to the good work that they are seeing."

But, what about those lesser-known councilors who are currently elected. How did they see their chances of being re-installed?

Daniel Ortiz
"Whenever you talk city council, the faces who come to mind are the Mayor, Deon Leslie, Bernard "BQ" Pitts Jr., but Michael Theus, you tend to be a little bit obscured. Do you think that will affect your numbers here tonight that though you are a part of team that has done a lot for the city, you won't be recognized for it?"

Michael Theus - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"No, not necessarily. Primarily my portfolio was public relations and so the many ads you saw for the council is actually produced under my portfolio - push out from there. I am not too much of camera person, I am not too much in the front. I am a worker and I did my work and I am quite satisfied in what I had achieved. If it is to be, it's going to be tonight."

Dr. Alain Gonzalez - Incumbent, UDP CitCo Slate
"The Mayor is the head council. Of course he will be in the most of the spotlight, but we also have the other councilors like myself who are the ones who work behind the scenes and I am sure that I have done my share of the part of work and I am sure that I will continue doing my share of the work. Although I might not be a camera person like the Mayor, but I work very well behind the scenes and I will continue doing the same work as I've been doing up to now."

Coming up to the end of the convention, that number had swelled to 4 thousand, 2 hundred residents who had come out, a tally which the observing UDP Area Reps. were excited to see.

Hon. Herman Longsworth - Area Rep, Albert Division
"Its shows the popularity that the UDP has, I mean lets be real; the UDP could never have gotten this amount of people out here today if they weren't popular with the populist."

Hon. Wilfred "Sedi" Elrington - Area Rep, Pickstock
"It looks good. This has been a very festive occasion, everybody seem to be very happy and positive and I haven't have any negative. Very strangely people haven't been asking me for anything. This was the pleasing part of it, they have come out and they have voted, but they have not tried to shake me down - that is very positive and I am very happy. To my mind that signals that people are happy with what we are doing and are prepared to come out and support the democratic process without any kind of inducement from us other than the good solid work that we are doing."

Hon. Mark King - Area Rep, Lake Independence
"We are extremely happy with the turnout and the numbers especially. As you know this is the biggest city and it's the biggest convention countrywide and so far the numbers have proven that. It brought out the numbers, so I am very happy for that."

Though there is the satisfaction that today's convention was a success, the area reps say that for the March 2015 Municipal elections, the different committee machineries will be activated, and the numbers recorded for the elections should be doubled or almost tripled.

Hon. Mark King - Area Rep, Lake Independence
"The numbers shown here today show us that the municipal election will bring out some very high votes for the UDP. People don't normally come out to convention - die hard UDPs will, so at the end of the day when that hype begins - that the numbers and the Belizeans - a lot of people like what the council is doing and so forth right now, so we are sure that the numbers will go way higher than what we saw here today."

They finished counting votes this morning at around 2:30 am, and the top polling councillor was Dion Leslie, who got 3,244 votes. Phillip Willoughby was second with 2,893 votes, and veteran Hyacinth Cuellar, who sat out the last elections, was third with 2,796. Newcomer, Jason Edwards, who the driver of Lake I Representative Mark King, was fourth with 2,785 votes. 5th went to Bernard "BQ" Pitts Jr, who was followed by Dean Samuels, Dr. Alain Gonzalez, Michael Theus, and Alifa Elrington. Sitting City Council Kevin Singh managed to squeeze into the UDP 10 with 2009 votes. These are now the candidates who will represent the UDP in the upcoming Municipal Elections for next year March.

The overall turnout of 4242 voters is an improvement on the 3636 who came out in 2011, but not as many as the 6615 who came out in 2008 - except on that occasion there was a hotly contested mayoral race and over 30 councillor candidates.