Yesterday, the PUP held its 4th Power to the People Rally - this time in the Belize Rural North Constituency. The idea behind the series of meetings is to make the party's candidates accessible to the voters of the area that they are meeting in. But, again, 11 of those candidates were absent - those being the G11 who are currently at odds with the party's leadership. Importantly, four of those eleven are from the Belize District, or Eastern Caucus and they too boycotted the event.
So, the PUP leadership took that impaired roster into the UDP stronghold of Belize Rural North, where, just over 2 months ago the current Area Rep., Edmond Castro, brought out just over 2100 voters for a contested convention and won by a margin of 3 to 1.
For the PUP, our count says that around 700 persons showed up at the Community Center Grounds in Sandhill Village. We saw around 12 buses, suggesting that many of the supporters were not residents of Rural North. That would suggest that the voters in that constituency did not show up to listen to the PUP Leaders, certainly not in the kind of numbers that the party would hope for. We challenged the Deputy, Julius Espat, and not surprisingly, he disagreed:
Hon. Julius Espat - Deputy Leader, PUP
"It always goes well. Because the idea is for the leadership of the party to be among the people and the idea is, especially the party leader and most of us to join the people and listen to them and feel the vibes in the different communities. In that aspect it's always good."
Daniel Ortiz
"Would you say that objective of the People Rally, is it working out?"
Hon. Julius Espat - Deputy Leader, PUP
"Yes. The misunderstanding is people think they are doing this to be able to rally troops. Its not that. It to be able to meet people and there was a complaint and there still is a complaint that the leadership of both political parties don't spend enough time with their people and Francis is a new leader and so he has to even spend more time and that's the plan and you get to listen to what people are saying, how they are thinking - you feel the vibes in the area. It's a good thing."
Daniel Ortiz
"How would you answer to an observer who say well what you see is the home crowd coming out. You don't seethe voters, the ones who you would want to convert, the ones who you would want to win over on your side. It's always the home crowd who shows up and so you are pondering to that home crowd."
Hon. Julius Espat - Deputy Leader, PUP
"That is not necessarily bad. In politics, you called it home crowd, we called it hardcore. Both parties have their hardcore and then you have the independent people that tend to vote either side. In events like these you won't get a lot of the people that vote either side, because we have to face the fact. We are living under a time when this government is very vindictive. So people tend to stay at home. You would get a text, you would get a call, you would get some kind of information from them, but we don't expect all of them to come out at events like this. Events like this is more for our people, to the real PUPs to come out and voice their opinion and voice their concerns and listen to leadership."
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