So, after all that, who won and who lost? Well, there are eight UDP controlled town councils and one mixed PUP controlled twon council. That mixed council is in Orange Walk, where the PUP led by Kevin Bernard won five seats and the UDP two. North of that town, in Corozal, the UDP's Hilberto Campos won an unprecedented fourth term as mayor, to lead an all red slate. Going West Heraldo Rancahran will lead the UDP council in that border town, and in San Ignacio, Earl Trapp transitions form councilor to Mayor. In Belmopan, newcomer Khalid Belisle takes over from his UDP predecessor Simeon Lopez. To the south in Dangriga, the UDP's Francis Humphreys led his UDP slate to victory, and in Punta Gorda, the country's only female mayor is UDP Fern Gutierrez - who was the only UDP councilor in a mixed council. And, finally, in the Central area, Danny Guerrero gets a second term in san Pedro for the UDP and Darrell Bradley does the same for the UDP in Belize City.
Again, the UDP won 62 of 67 municipal seats - and to give you a sense of how weird this is - the last time a Dean Barrow led party had such overwhelming control of the municipalities was back in 2006 when it won 64 of 67 seats. At that time the UDP was a popular opposition party and the PUP was a moribund incumbent administration lurching from scandal to scandal.
At the end of the day, 60,533 persons voted, our of 105,634 - which is 57% - higher than the last stand alone municipal election in 2009.
And for all you elections junkies, the final results have just been posted on the elections and boundaries website, so you can feast on that. We'll have a breakdown tomorrow.
Email
Print