Coye is new Mayor, but was it unanimous?

Jose Coye and Marshall Nunez have been re-elected as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Belize City… But that’s about the only thing upon which all nine City Councilors apparently agree. A press release issued today by City Hall says that the vote was unanimous and that no other candidates were even nominated. Councilor Merilyn Young, however, who in an interview yesterday evening vowed to fight for the top post, today told News Five that the vote was in fact 5 – 4, with the tiebreaking ballot coming in the form of a proxy faxed in by Councilor Eric Kirkwood, who now resides in the United States. Why the discrepancy in the stories? Mayor Coye told us that the split vote took place in a caucus before the official meeting began… and once Young and her nominee for deputy, David Fonseca, saw they could not win, they threw in the towel and made the official vote unanimous. Not quite, says Young, who assures us that the facts are recorded in the official minutes of the meeting.