The Race for Town Hall Kicks Off in Peini
Tonight, we officially commence our pre-election coverage of the 2024 municipals with a series of profiles that will introduce mayoral and councilor candidates from all nine cities and towns to the masses of Belizean voters. In our inaugural segment, we take you to Punta Gorda where we met with mayoral hopefuls from the Belize Progressive Party, the People’s United Party, as well as councilor candidates from all three political organizations. Here’s our first episode of Meet the Candidates.
Anita Nicholas
Anita Nicholas, BPP Mayoral Candidate, PG
“From a child, I was always around with politics with both of my grandparents, my grandfather and my grandmother. When they would go to any political activities, they would take me along with them and I thought there was where my interest and my love for politics grew. However, I decided, based on what I have seen and based on what I have learned, to hold the politicians accountable and I was not seeing accountability in both of the major political parties, I decided to join the Belize Progressive Party which was a new party and that was how I decided to run with the Belize Progressive Party.”
Seleni Cus
Seleni Cus, U.D.P. Councilor Candidate
“What motivated me was that I saw the state our town is in at the moment and as a youth, I have been out before I even thought to get involved with politics and I thought that, you know, I could make a difference here in town and I would be a voice for the youths and women here in my town as well. Based on records, I believe that we don’t have most females being involved in politics and being the first Maya female to put up my name on a ballot paper here in Punta Gorda, I think that it is something, you know, that our youths can look at, especially young females. They can look at that and, you know, take a stand because it’s time for females to come up and join the political field.”
Jahrine Avila
Jahrine Avila, PUP Councilor Candidate
“For me, personally, I’ve always been involved with different organizations in my community, giving back and always volunteering my time. So when I was approached by one of our past leaders, Mr. Galvez, he spoke with me and my first thought was, you know, I’m not that type of person to be into politics but he was like, look at the bigger picture, look at what you have done in your community and see what you can do now on a bigger platform. So I thought about it and said, “Hey, why not!” This is not for myself, but for my community. I’ve always been involved. I have love for my people and my community, so why not give it a shot and do what you do best.”
Kevin Choc
Kevin Choc, U.D.P. Councilor Candidate
“What inspired me to run again, put my name on the ballot, is the people, you know. I have a passion to serve, you know, and the people have seen that and they, basically, I have a group of people who are behind me, pushing for me to be, some ah dehn mi even wahn I run fi mayor, but, you know, yoh haffi climb up di ranks. I believe that everything takes time. So di people is what inspired me to put my name on a ballot.”
Isani Cayetano
“What do you believe is perhaps different this time around from the previous time you ran for office?
Kevin Choc
“What is different is being in opposition. That is very different, you know, and I believe that hard times create strong men.”
Malcolm Galvez
Malcolm Galvez, PUP Councilor Candidate
“PG needs a lot of help, you know. We need people, well we need leaders that are willing to stand up and speak on behalf of the voters, on behalf of the residents. One of the things that I personally did was, I got up at our national party council meeting and I mentioned that, you know, Toledo East has always been, the south has always been known as a PUP stronghold. I mentioned that to the prime minister and deputy prime minister and at the time we had the worst streets in the country. It’s not the best place to mention some of the problems, but it is important to us, so every opportunity the current council got, we tried to mention those issues.”
Franklyn ‘Kranka’ Polonio
Franklyn ‘Kranka’ Polonio, UDP Mayoral Candidate
“I went there because I realize that we need to build that hope again, you know, that trust, that integrity as Belizeans and also as politicians. I believe that trust needs to build back and that’s one thing that I basically have with the people of Punta Gorda.”
Carlos ‘Obeah’ Galvez
Carlos ‘Obeah’ Galvez, PUP Mayoral Candidate
“People, voters here in PG, had asked me on numerous occasions to come back in participate in electoral politics and, you know, I decided after thirteen years, I decided, you know what, I said listen it’s at the call of the people, at the request of the people, why not?”
