Breaking Down the P.U.P. Victory
There are many angles to follow in respect of Wednesday’s elections. The win was massive for the P.U.P., which took twenty-six seats. The margin of victory in the Lake Independence constituency was a whopping, where Cordel Hyde trashed Dianne Finnegan by a margin of three thousand one hundred. And in Cayo South, Julius Espat beat his opponent by two thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight votes. In the following story, News Five’s Isani Cayetano crunches the numbers and also looks at the voters’ turnout.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
The margins of victory between the People’s United Party, the U.D.P. and all other political organizations are a statistical breakdown which clearly indicates how it came to be that twenty-six of the thirty-one seats in parliament were won. The universal voter turnout in Wednesday’s general elections stands at eighty-one point eight-six percent, that is of all registered voters. By constituency, almost ninety percent of all eligible voters in Queen’s Square made it to the polls to cast their votes. Second to that is Corozal North with eighty-seven point nine-three percent of the electorate in that constituency participating in the national vote. The area with the lowest turnout was Toledo East, the constituency represented by Mike Espat of the P.U.P. Only sixty-eight point seven percent, the equivalent of four thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight voters showed up at the polls. The total number of eligible voters in that area stands at six thousand, eight hundred and thirty-one persons. Notwithstanding the high voter turnout in Queen’s Square, one must bear in mind that the constituency has less than three thousand voters.
The spread between winners and losers in the elections is also telling, particularly when one looks at the seats that were considered to be U.D.P. strongholds. In Belize Rural south, for instance, Andre Perez pummeled Manuel Heredia Jr. by almost two thousand votes. In Cayo North, Michel Chebat defeated Omar Figueroa by nine hundred and fifty-five votes. The biggest upset was in Belmopan where Oscar Mira trounced John Saldivar by a margin of two thousand, one hundred and sixty-eight votes.
By constituency, the United Democratic Party was only able to secure five seats, four in Belize City and one in Corozal North where Hugo Patt won convincingly over David Castillo. The People’s United Party clinched six of ten constituencies in Belize City and twenty other seats across the country with the exception of the aforesaid Corozal North. The crushing defeat was most evident in Lake Independence where Deputy Party Leader Cordel Hyde trounced Dianne Finnegan by over three thousand, one hundred votes.
