Email

Print

Jules Vasquez reporting
The ITVET was swarming with UDP supporters, and political animals of all species - it was like a political bazaar.

And political paraphernalia littered the landscape. Police had a very heavy presence in the line and on the ready. As conversant with M-16's as they are with mobile phones.

At around 4:30 there was a steady stream of voters. It was so full, some had to vote outdoors. Carefully casting their X in pencil. Stuffing that ballot in one box for councillors, one box for mayors. To ink their finger and make it known that they had come and done their part to support their candidate.

At 4:30 PM, the lines were very long, and slow moving - especially for Queen's Square. We saw mayoral candidate Dion Leslie working the line, while Phillip Willoughby was at the gate all day.

The captains for Mesopotamia - including candidate hopeful Shane Barrow - had their hands full.

Coming unto the close of polls at 5:00 pm, the lines did not let up. At the end of the polling, the boxes were taken under police guard to the central counting area.

And while Mesop was the first box taken into count, the line at Queen Square at 6:00 pm - one hour after polls should have closed was the longest.

The first Queen's Square box wasn't taken in until 6:30 pm.

Deputy Party Leader Patrick Faber was himself doing some of the heavy lifting.

When the counting finished Dion Leslie beat Phillip Willoughby by over 700 votes, with over three thousand votes total.

Dion Leslie, UDP Mayoral Candidate
"It feels good. It's gratifying knowing all the hard work we put in over the past month and a half, the late nights, early mornings, the long hours. I always said you get out what you put in and we put in a lot and I think we are seeing now and I'm very pleased."

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Were there any moments during the day today or during the counting when you thought wow I might lose?"

Dion Leslie, UDP Mayoral Candidate
"Of course. You see a 10 ballots in a row come out against you and mind starts going and speeding and racing and thinking all these things, but we just stayed the course and we knew that we had put in the work Jules and that's the most important thing that we knew our machinery was there our machinery was ready."

Divisions like Queen Square where Leslie won by almost 300 votes and Port Loyola where he won by 150 were a big part of his success - and those are seats where the candidates or political officers came out strongly for Leslie:

Hon. Anthony Martinez, UDP Minister
"I choose Dion. I think in my view I choose Dion and I think he is a person that I can work with, extremely comfortable with."

But in divisions where the representative was neutral, namely Collet and Mesopotamia Willoughby won those:

Hon. Michael Finnegan, UDP Mesopotamia Rep.
"Willoughby won Mesopotamia and he won collet. And he won both areas because I as the representative kept out of it and left it for the two candidates them and have them run and may the better man win and I believe and I know for a fact that Patrick Faber did the same thing."

Hon. Anthony Martinez, UDP Minister
"As I understand it I think Collet was in a neutral corner. As I understand it, the area representative from Mesopotamia did not interfere. He had his choice of who he voted for, but he didn't interfere."

So, the conclusion could be that voters who were free from their representative's influence, chose Willoughby - a lesson that Leslie might be wise to take note of:

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Would you at this point be wise to heartily embrace Mr. Willoughby, because clearly he is fairly formidable if he was able to do this most as an isolated candidate?"

Dion Leslie, UDP Mayoral Candidate
"I have to give kudos to Phillip and congratulates him. He ran an amazing campaign. With what you said what was against him he still did amazingly well and it just shows the power. How often it is that two teams can have two strong candidates like Phillip and myself that we could move forward."

Hyacinth Latchman Cuellar topped the polls for the councillors:

Hyacinth Latchman Cuellar
"I believe that we have delivered the services to people. We want to continue with that transformation. We want to continue to deliver more services to Belize City residents."

For the UDP - it was a good exercise - with almost 5,600 voters turning out, a large convention by any estimate:

Hon. Michael Finnegan, UDP Mesopotamia Rep.
"That's a good number that's a good turnout. That's a heavy turnout. So the UDP is probably stronger in Belize City even more than I thought strong."

Dion Leslie, UDP Mayoral Candidate
"Every time we have one we have one of these convention going into a municipal elections for the past 4 going on 5 that we we've done very well, because this helps us, not only for the candidates, but also the different area reps and the divisions, putting their machinery back in line, working out the kinks. So it's a great thing."

Hon. Michael Finnegan, UDP Mesopotamia Rep.
"The gentlemen were stronger than I thought, because in my view it was the 2 mayoral candidates that brought out this number here today."

Hon. Anthony Martinez, UDP Minister
"I think that we service the city fair enough that I think the People's United Party will never get back Belize City."

And while that may be wishful thinking, until the PUP can have one like this, it's a fair boast.

So, while Leslie won the nomination to be the Mayoral candidate, there was also a race for the 10 councillor posts where 16 candidates offered themselves. The ones elected to run - in order of popularity are Hyacinth Latchman Cuellar, who topped the polls, Alifa Elrington, Bernard Pitts Juniour, Dr. Alain Gonzalez, newcomer Judith Enriquez, Dean Samuels, Jason Edwards, Phillip Willoughby - who ran for both mayor and councillor, Kevin Singh, and newcomer Noreen Martinez. Michael Theus was the only returning councillor who did not get nominated. A total of 5,589 votes were cast, more than the 4,242 voters who came out in 2014, but not as many as the 6615 who came out in 2008 for the last convention where there was a race for the mayor's nomination.