At the top of the news, we showed you interviews with PUP big shots talking about the ongoing internal rift in their party. They were speaking at the first stop of the PUP's Power to the People Tour. And while the controversy eclipsed the tour, the idea behind the meetings is to make the leaders of the party more available to their followers for public consultation.
As we said at the top of the news, we counted about 700 persons in attendance, but the politicians at the event told us that they're satisfied with yesterday's turn out in San Ignacio.:
Hon. Julius Espat - Deputy Leader PUP
"This is not a rally. This is a the start of our consultation and I think it's a reasonable crowd, we have I believe a little over 1,000 people which is a fair amount of people for what it is. It is the start of what we are going to do throughout the whole country which is consultation. Anybody can go up there, ask their questions, make a statement and hopefully we can respond a way that they see fit."
Daniel Ortiz
"What exactly is to be achieved?"
Hon. Julius Espat - Deputy Leader PUP
"Consultation. That's what should be achieved. The complaint for all political parties and politicians has been that you don't consult enough. So we are taking the tour throughout the whole country and we are concentrating initially in the rural communities that don't have access to leaders and don't have access to have contact with them. So it not a new formula. The People's United Party has done this in the past and it has successful at doing this and we are just going back to our roots and this is the start of it. "
Dan Silva - PUP Standard Bearer, Cayo Central
"I have no problem being out here today. We are PUP's. We want to change the government. We have our own ideas but we want to see more people participation in the PUP."
Reporter
"Mr. Fonseca, can you tell us your feedback about the turn out here today?"
Hon. Francis Fonseca - Leader of the Opposition
"Very good. Very spirited, well attended. We love it. We love every minute of it, a lot of energy. Our people came out. It's the 1st Power to the People consultation. We'll take it across the country. So where very proud of the western caucus. Very pleased with the turn out and the energy and spirit to the unity."
Hon. Julius Espat - Deputy Leader PUP
"We are not here to show numbers. We are here to consult and it's the start. I remember when I started under the leadership of John Briceno, we were touring the country with 2 people under a mango tree and we started from there and that's what it is. It's to go out and reach people. It's our responsibility to go out to people."
In the interview, you heard Deputy Leader Julius Espat claim that the attendance was just over a thousand. His fellow standard bearer Yasmin Shoman posted on Facebook that her count was 1,300. Both numbers we dispute, since we counted 700, but whichever estimate you use, the attendance was less than 3% of the voting population in the Cayo district. We also know that persons from other areas were bused in.
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