Right now in Cayo North, 13 ballot boxes from two polling stations are being carted over to the Center for Employment Training compound. That's the counting station for only the third divisional by-election in Belize's history. That means that in about two, or two and a half hours, we should know who the new representative for that area is.
Voting today started slow but when polls closed at 35 minutes ago at 6:00 pm, figures say the final turnout was 4023 voters or about 61% of the registered voters - that's in line with the divisional by-election in Freetown in 1993 where 60% came out.
And while the voters were slow to come out early on - the mass parties muscled in on the division and flooded the area with supporters from all over the country.
I was there in San Ignacio where the town was flooded with political operators shuttling back and forth between two polling areas. We start our coverage with the opening of polls in San Ignacio:
Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Out of 6,598 registered voters, only 5,056 are listed here at5 Polling Station 73 right here at the Sacred Heart Primary School. After a weekend of frenzy political activities, the day is finally here and polls have been open for over an hour and as you can see here supporters are coming in and while the polls are not inundated as yet, contingents from both parties will be streaming in because this Cayo North By-election goes down in history as the first by-election that has garnered so much support and attraction from all 30 constituencies.
Bullet Tree is the only village here in Cayo North where 1,542 out of the 6,598 voters are listed at this polling station. Strategically it is a pivotal area and a disproportionate number of political operators zoned in on this western village.
While you see a swarm of political activity behind me and scores of blue and red, what you don't see are the voters from Cayo North and that's because at eleven this morning, only 16% of voters came out and here at Polling Station 73, 14% came out."
So, who are these people behind? They are party supporters and political officials and they are dominating the front line and the voters, well, they are in the background and this is what happens when the political resources of all 30 focus on one. There is just a lot of people don't have much to do, but both parties say things are expected to pick up in the afternoon.
Reporting for 7News in Cayo North here in Polling Station 73, I am Courtney Weatherburne.
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