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UDP Showed Muscle, But Not Dominant Numbers
posted (December 15, 2014)
In our first segment - we showed you the PUP's nomination day even in Cayo North. The afternoon into the evening was reserved for the ruling UDP. As expected, they had more energy - but their showing delivered lower political voltage than we expected. Jules Vasquez has the report:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
The UDP crowd rolled down Benque Viejo Street from the area known as the red hills of Cayo North. The crowd was energetic, spirited and uniformly dressed in Omar Figueroa shirts.

That took them into downtown San Ignacio - and unlike the PUP who crowded into Columbus Park - this crowd spilled into the street, singing dancing and playing drums.

A very different style - and for the candidate Figueroa - who was greeted by his party leader and prime minister - it was a great thrust unto the national stage:

Omar Figueroa, Nominated for UDP Cayo North
"It's almost as if it's too good to be true. I mean, the Cayo North people are embracing us and you could feel it. You walk house to house and everybody opens their door and welcomes us in."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Party Leader - UDP
"We really have, I think, a first class candidate and clearly the party is on a roll coming out of the huge turnout we had at the PetroCaribe event in Belmopan."

Jules Vasquez
"Your opponent says you have no plan."

Omar Figueroa
"Jules, 3 out of the last 4 elections in Cayo North have been won by the PUP. It's because the PUP that Cayo North has not seen the kind of development that it entails. As to what my opponent says, I mean no disrespect to him when I say that he is irrelevant in this fight. This is not about me nor my opponent. This is about the people of Cayo North."

But we didn't see too many of those people today - as with the PUP crowd - we saw many out of towners - and we saw a crowd that while it showed energy only had slightly upwards of 400 persons:

Omar Figueroa
"Jules, we could mobilize a larger crowd if you wanted to. For the rally in Belmopan, we took about 800 people from Cayo North. In the heat of this campaign, you don't have a lot of resource, I need to be careful about how I invest our resources here right. The numbers today won't really determine what happens on January 5th."

Jules Vasquez
"Knowing the muscularity which UDP is now in the habit of showing, it's not as dominating an outing as you might have expected."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Party Leader - UDP
"No, we are waiting for the 5th January... domination - that's when you will see domination."

Jules Vasquez
"So, you are conceding that this isn't a full showing?"

Hon. Dean Barrow, Party Leader - UDP
"No, I think it's an absolutely good showing. It could be better, could always be better. When we had 10,000 in Belmopan, 7,000 by your count, we could have had 50. But no man, the numbers are good and the energy is better, so I am absolutely satisfied."

And while he may be satisfied, is the electorate? And will this election be a referendum on the Barrow administration:

Jules Vasquez
"The Leader of the Opposition says that you will be crushed under the weight of the falling UDP."

Omar Figueroa
"This isn't even so much about the PUP and the UDP and what's crumbling and what not crumbling. This is about the people of Cayo North and what's best for them and I told my friend last week, because at the PUP rally, one of the arguments was that a vote for Omar is a vote for Dean Barrow. So, I don't my friend, even those boys are campaigning for me now."

Jules Vasquez
"Because if you lose means that it's a major F - it's a referendum on your leadership."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Party Leader - UDP
"I don't know that it will be a referendum on my leadership. But I am prepared to accept that. So confident am I that we are not going to lose, that we will win and we will win big. So, in the same way that you have it a referendum on my leadership if we lost, let it be a referendum on my leadership when we win and win so very handily."

And while Barrow is pulling out all the stops - we didn't see former four term UDP representative Salva Fernandez

Hon. Dean Barrow, Party Leader - UDP
"I remember the elections of 2012, the last general elections and the UDP lost a number of seats that I thought we have not to have lost and some of those defeats wounded me terribly, but none more so than the defeat here in the constituency of Cayo North."

Jules Vasquez
"He didn't have Joseph Mahmud or Ainsley Leslie with him. I notice you don't have Salvador Fernandez out here. Is Salvador Fernandez supporting you?"

Omar Figueroa
"You would have to ask Salvador Fernandez that question Jules."

But Figueroa is undaunted as is the UDP who see this as the start of an electoral drive to the municipals in March. Today they had live music cheap beer and an excess of political personalities in a drive into an extended election season:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Party Leader - UDP
"If we were to win as I am certain we will. It increases that momentum and it puts us in a position to steal role the PUP in the municipal elections that come two months later and to go from that into the general elections - fairly placed in the catbird seat."

The UDP meeting and rally at the San Ignacio Welcome center went into the evening, and we saw the crowd grow by a few hundred more at that location.

But to the numbers: At Columbus Park we counted between 175 and 200 for the PUP and for the UDP about 400 to 450.

Police say the PUP had 300 and the UDP 700 at the park. But they say that at the Welcome Center, the UDP had a thousand.

WE spoke to Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Opposition Leader Fonseca about a number of other national issues and we'll have those interviews for you later on.

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