Email

Print

Daniel Ortiz reporting
On Sunday, Afternoon, Elodio Aragon Jr., a career police officer turned politician, walked streets of Orange Walk East, greeting the voters - something which he claimed to have been doing since he became a standard bearer almost 2 years ago.

Elodio Aragon Jr. - UDP Candidate, Orange Walk East
"It's been one year - eight months that I have been here as the official UDP standard bearer for the United Democratic Party."

Aragon, formerly second in command of the police department, had a very successful career, and it was not unforeseeable that he could have been Commissioner of Police. But, he walked away from all that to the vagaries of electoral politics. Why did he make such a decision?

Elodio Aragon Jr. - UDP Candidate, Orange Walk East
"A lot of people ask me that question and I always tell them the honest and frank truth. When you looked at the commissioner post, with then being the deputy commissioner, very shortly I would have become the next commissioner of police. But the more I looked at things in my own neck of the woods which is the Orange Walk East constituency, I born basically in Orange Walk Town and I have lived all my life in the east. I have seen that for the last 20 years I have not seen the kind of development that this east constituency deserves and upon seeing that I began to think a lot in terms of where would we want to go as a community. Where would I want to see my east constituency and this country go and from there I began to look at it and say you know what, we need good leadership."

So, what qualities has he been marketing to the voters to convince them that he should be their next area representative?

Elodio Aragon Jr. - UDP Candidate, Orange Walk East
"I have been there. Since one year and eight months I have not stop walking and I have visited nearly every home in every village. I have been here in the town more than once going around. This will be my third time visiting people in their homes, finding out what are their needs. Not only finding out, I am also listening and I am also helping with whatever I can as a standard bearer, wherever I could draw resources from I do it because I believe that the people in this east division deserves a great leader, somebody who will be there for them and I am here not just for election day. I am here for the next 5 years for them."

Orange Walk East has had its own challenges in the past 3 years and 7 months. First they elected a PUP representative in the era of a UDP Government Administration, and more importantly, their current area representative, Marco Tulio Mendez, pretty much went underground in the wake of the child molestation scandal which still rages on and remains unresolved.

Reporter
"Is there any fear, 1) that your political opponent has the support of the very well-established John Briceno, and also he may be backing up your political opponent with money."

Elodio Aragon Jr. - UDP Candidate, Orange Walk East
"I'll be frank with you. Mr. Aragon can't compete with Briceno in terms of money, because I am not here about the money. I am bigger than the money. I am here for the people and if it takes me to walk every day to meet people in their homes, to see how they are living in their homes, to see their needs, their priorities. At the end of the day when they were looking for persons to assist them, they only person they could have found was Mr. Elodio Aragon Jr., because I am the only who has have the office open. I am the only one who attends to people. I am the only they could find in their communities. None of the PUP, both the representative and the PUP standard bearer is nowhere to be found. But they are seeing them now for election time and I am confident that the people will remember Elodio Aragon Jr."

But, despite that, his opponent, Josue Carballo, who has been in elected to office, and he has more experience in politics, strongly believes that Orange Walk East will still choose him over Aragon. Here's his sales pitch.

Josue Carballo - PUP Candidate, Orange Walk East
"I have not lost none for the past 7 years. Even at our darkest hours, I have not lost on election, nor one convention and this time we shall remain champions in the Orange Walk East. Jobs and opportunities. that is what we need and that is what we deserve. The PUP shall offer free education up to junior college. We shall open a UB campus in the north and a new high school in Orange Walk East. I shall rally behind the strong new PUP government and our great leader Francis Fonseca."

We continue our coverage of battleground seats tomorrow when we visit the Leader of the Opposition Francis Fonseca campaigning in Freetown.