Tonight, the PUP government is feeling like it just got a fresh mandate after a commanding victory in municipal elections yesterday.
Tonight, the blue controls city and town halls in 8 of the 9 municipalities - and the UDP has made a narrow gain in its stronghold: the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena.
Up to midnight - it looked like the UDP may have gotten scraped by with a mayoral candidate in Punta Gorda Town - but by 1:00 am - after two recounts - the town went full blue.
Jules Vasquez has a statistical recap of what has to be considered an impressive victory for a government in its fourth year in office:
It was another blue wave in the municipals of 2024 - PUP candidates won 61 out of 67 available seats - and tonight have full control of 8 out of the 9 municipalities.
And there's only a snatch of red in the west - San Ignacio Santa Elena where the UDP's Mayor Earl Trapp was re-elected, along with councilor Bernadette Fernandez - plus four other UDP councillors, and the sole returning PUP councillor Aaron Mai.
It is the UDP's only gain in a staggering loss that is a near repeat of their trouncing in the 2021 municipals.
Except, incredibly, the red party actually lost ground in 5 municipalities and the PUP actually gained ground since 2021. The PUP won by a greater margin in Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize City, San Pedro, and Dangriga, while the UDP made gains in Punta Gorda and Belmopan - where they still only got less than 43% of the vote.
Nationally, the PUP got 63% of the vote, slightly more than they did in 2021, and significantly more than they did in the 2020 generals when they only 58% of it.
At 35.15% the UDP in 2024 got a slightly lesser share of the total votes than they did in 2021.
Notably, in the Lake Independence are of Belize City, the PUP was most dominant, once again securing almost 90% of the votes casted.
Voter turnout was 57.7% which is almost identical to the turnout in the 2018 and 2021 municipal elections.
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