U.D.P. Brings Out the Crowd –they say they are ready!
This afternoon at one, the United Democratic Party flexed its Nomination Day muscles, and answer to the P.U.P.’s respectable showing that morning. Mike Rudon was in front of U.D.P. headquarters at one for a political spectacle which did not disappoint.
Mike Rudon, Reporting
If the P.U.P. brought out a sea of blue for the morning’s march to the complex, the U.D.P. had an ocean. They organized in front of the Party’s BelChina headquarters – with all the same aesthetics of a mass mobilization – music booming from not one but two floats, signs, banners, hats, drums, dancing, singing. The mood was upbeat and the numbers were massive, a fact which became even more evident when the crowd moved off toward the complex at around one thirty. Incumbent Mayor Darrell Bradley led the way, and the ocean of red followed behind.
From this vantage point you can get a better idea about the size of the crowd which came out to support the U.D.P. this afternoon. They sang and shouted and danced in the streets, and especially close to the floats complete with towering speakers and DJs, the atmosphere was like that of a carnival fete.
To play it safe with the numbers again, we’ll just say that the crowd easily tripled that of the P.U.P. Police say at its peak, it neared two thousand five hundred.
As the municipal team did its official business inside the complex, the bigger players in central government, including U.D.P. leader Dean Barrow and Collet Area Rep., Patrick Faber, were outside taking care of business.
Dean Barrow
Dean Barrow, U.D.P. Leader
“I have not been able to make an assessment so that I don’t have a guestimate as to the exact number, but it is clear that it is a huge turnout and that is satisfactory; extremely encouraging.”
Reporter
“Well the leader of the opposition said that he had two thousand while the media counted hundreds. You will not make an exorbitant claim that maybe you have five thousand but maybe we see just over a thousand.”
Dean Barrow
“Well I just said I am unable to tell you about the number or anything close to it because I have not had a chance to asset it. All I know is, I repeat, that it is a huge turnout.”
Patrick Faber
Patrick Faber, U.D.P. Area Representative, Collet
“What we did this afternoon is to just, we had a box, we had a truck and that’s all the monies that we have spent and our people voluntarily came out here this afternoon because as my colleague has said, they support the U.D.P.; they have seen the work of Darrell Bradley and the U.D.P. city council and they want to make sure that that continues. So that is why they’re here.”
Incumbent Mayor Darrell Bradley, done with the official business inside, says that the crowd speaks for itself, and the support shown for the Party this afternoon is both energizing and gratifying.
Darrell Bradley
Darrell Bradley, Incumbent Mayor
“My heart is one hundred percent in being an effective mayor—both finishing up a term and then also going into a new term—should that be the wish of the voters with renewed energy, a sense of purpose, new ideas, new vigour to do increasing amounts of work—particularly infrastructure in Belize City for the benefit of residents. So we are in it, it is very electrifying out here today, the team is very unified. We are going to very shortly do more work in terms of releasing the manifesto full-fledged so that the people can be discussing some of the new ideas that we are proposing going into the new municipal term and we are very energized.”
The Mayor and his team have become known for unprecedented work in the city, but he says that they got more magic planned if the people of Belize City give them another term.
Darrell Bradley
“Right now, I did a tour over the last week to look at about thirty-five streets that we are upgrading. We are not cementing, we are not asphalting, but we are bringing them to what we call pre-pave status. That is as a result of our prudent fiscal management so that when we are paying off debt, that increases the cash flow. This weekend we are going to have the one year anniversary of B.T.L. Park; that’s a project that has been very successful. We have been able to attract sponsorship for that. We are working with international projects like CARILED; they are supporting us with getting memorial park on stream. They are giving us a grant—a small grant but a grant nonetheless—to be able to do those things so that when you have a plan, when you have a vision, when you have people with character, you tend to attract resources. And we believe that we can duplicate a lot of the projects that we did in the first term going into the second term.”
And with the showing today, this U.D.P. municipal team is extremely confident that it will be returned to office. Mike Rudon for News Five.
