Opposition leader discusses election results…

And while De la Fuente is ready for office, Leader of the Opposition, John Briceño says that the P.U.P.’s three consecutive wins in Orange Walk are a sign of what is to come in the next municipal election in 2012 and looks at what the results mean for the opposition party.

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“What’s important to note Duane, as you pointed out, we won three seats and the fourth seat we could’ve won, they only lost it by two. We narrowed the gap, for instance, in Orange Walk East where just a year ago we lost about six hundred votes. This time we lost by under two hundred votes. In Orange Walk North where the Deputy Prime Minister is, he won it by over a hundred and fifty votes last year. This time around, they barely won it by over sixty votes, somewhere around that point. So you can see us closing the gap everywhere we go. Corozal Town we lost with over a thousand votes. This time we lost by about three hundred votes. In Belize City that is where we made some of the largest gains. We won in Albert, we won in Fort George, Pickstock where we had a devastating defeat last year, this time around we lost it by only over a hundred votes. In Freetown our mayoral candidate actually won over mayor Moya. Down south again, all of them, when you started to look at the numbers as we started to do the analysis we’re stating to see that the P.U.P. is narrowing that gap.”

Duane Moody
“So you’re saying that this is sign, more or less, that the P.U.P. is coming back and they are coming back hard?”

John Briceño
“Certainly, and I’ll like to point out that we are all in the rebuilding stage of the party. The results were not favorable but when you look back at history since 1984, whenever there is a change of government, the party that wins the central government always wins the next municipal elections. So this is the trend. People are more pragmatic; they feel that is they have a friendly central government with a friendly town council, they believe that they can accomplish more. What will happen now is that the U.D.P. central government and the U.D.P. local government will have no excuse in cleaning the area, picking up the garbage, fixing the streets, fixing the parks and drains, etcetera. There’s going to be no excuse and we, from our end, will be very vigilant and make sure that they live up to the promises that they made the Belizean people. I’m very hopeful and excited as you start to look at the numbers as we start to do the analysis that the Peoples’ United Party is rebuilding and energizing and I am confident that in three years whenever they call the next municipal elections its going to be a totally different story.”