Incumbent Belmopan mayor defeats two hopefuls
Municipal elections are not due until 2009, but with heavy in-fighting and public quarrels, the U.D.P. has begun early mayoral conventions in districts and the cities. There are plenty candidates to go around with the U.D.P. in control of all town councils and city councils around the country. Punta Gorda, however, sticks out, where the Mayor is P.U.P. and the rest of the Council is U.D.P. On Sunday, heavy weights in the U.D.P., both Ministers John Saldivar and Patrick Faber, were out in full force in Belmopan for a hotly contested three way mayoral race. Conventional wisdom would suggest that this support would have meant a lot for the candidate of their choice, Khalid Belisle. Well not so because the incumbent stayed the course. Voting began early in the morning and when ballots were finally tallied after nine last night, the mayor was ahead by more than a hundred votes defeating both newcomers, Belisle and Eugene Brown. The convention was not without its share of political drama as at least one Minister got into a spat with the sitting mayor, while the Belize City mayor was publicly berated by another high ranking U.D.P. member. Kendra Griffith has the story.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
There was plenty of cheek kissing and handshaking going on in the Garden City on Sunday as candidates for the Belmopan City Council greeted those who would decide the U.D.P. slate for next year’s municipal elections. The convention had three Mayoral contenders who fielded a full slate of six councillors.
Elected in 2006, incumbent Mayor Simeon Lopez says his council did its job well, even though they experienced financial constraints under the P.U.P. administration.
Simeon Lopez, Mayoral Candidate, Belmopan
“Streets were improved a lot, areas that used to be broken were cemented or instead of paving, we concreted a lot of junctions; at least nine junctions and they are no longer giving any problems and we don’t expect them to give any problems for the next fifteen to twenty years if any at all. We had to keep the city clean, we had to do our garbage collection, we had to do out maintenance of grass and the maintenance of grass and the maintenance of grass and drains, so in the area of municipal operations, we had to do that and we did a commendable job on municipal operations.”
One of the persons looking to unseat Lopez is Khalid Belisle who says he’s gonna put the people first.
Khalid Belisle, Mayoral Candidate, Belmopan
“I think it’s a known fact that once you stop moving forward that’s when you get passed by and I am not seeing the progress that I think Belmopan is capable of and that’s why I decided to step up and offer myself because I am a U.D.P. and I want the U.D.P. to maintain the reigns of the administration of this city. We can’t sit around all the time and say no money noh deh. You can’t expect the money to fall into your lap and so that’s certainly one of the short comings. I think we need to focus more on putting our resources and our efforts into the citizens, the actual people here in Belmopan instead of just focusing on the infrastructure all the time. Yes the streets and drains are important but it’s the people that make the community what it is without that all we have is a shell.”
While Belisle thinks he’s going to get the support of Belmopan residents, he’s definitely got the nod from area rep John Saldivar and Minister of Education, Patrick Faber.
Patrick Faber, Khalid Belisle Supporter
“I take special offence to anybody who tries to discredit young people because of their age, so that was the initial reason I got into the race, to put my support behind Khalid, but since then it has become a bigger issue because I have seen where Mayor Lopez and his team have really been going out doing negative campaigning trying to run down officials at this party. He has circulated a flyer against me now because of my involvement and we want to make it clear that there is no room for that kind of behaviour in the United Democratic Party and so I am here today to give my full support to Khalid Belisle hoping that he can unseat this mayor that now is on a rampage, I would say, to try to divide out party here in Belmopan.”
Simeon Lopez
“My administration is one, as I said, of complete transparency and accountability and I cannot allow things that does not seem right to happen and that is one of the reasons I think, or one of the main reasons why I am being challenged at this convention. It’s always true and it has always been said that power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely and that is what the people of Belmopan, I am sure, will fight against today. We want to send a clean and clear message to the power that be that the people are the bosses and the people will speak today.”
And while at twenty-seven years old Belisle was being touted as too young to lead … the third contender for the title of Mayor, Eugene Brown, came in at only twenty-one years old.
Eugene Brown, Mayoral Contender
“I do see a lot of shortcomings that I believe we could have done better as a council. I believe that the Mayor could have done better. I am offering myself because I have a new ideas and a new vision for this city and also I am offering myself because I have a love for my city and I am willing to serve in whatever capacity as possible.”
But then it came time to stop talking and start voting … almost two thousand area residents cast ballots and when the voting ceased at four, the tedious task of counting began. Although Lopez was leading through the tally, at one point Belisle’s camp erupted into cheers.
But it would be a premature celebration as not long afterwards, Lopez’s supporters also began to cheer when it was officially announced that the incumbent would return as the mayoral candidate for the U.D.P.
Dough Singh, Chairman, U.D.P.
“We have Eugene Michael Brown with one hundred and ninety-seven votes, Mr. Khalid Belisle with seven hundred and sixty-seven votes, and we have mayor Simeon Lopez as the mayoral candidate with eight hundred and ninety-eight votes.”
Simeon Lopez
“Thank you very much. The work still continues for the next six months. I had some worthy opponents in the person of Mr. Belisle and also councillor Eugene Brown. Thank you all very much. I want to thank everybody. This was a tough one. We had to get down and beat the streets. My wife can tell you when I leave home in the morning I don’t get back home until the night but it paid off.”
Members of the Belisle camp took the news hard, but the mayoral hopeful was gracious in defeat.
Khalid Belisle
“It just wasn’t my time boss. God has a plan for me and obviously the plan isn’t for me to be the mayoral nominee of the U.D.P. for next March. I am going to ask you to support the U.D.P. slate for next March elections.”
John Saldivar, Khalid Belisle Supporter
“Heartfelt congratulations to Mayor Lopez. I want to tell him and tell all U.D.P. supporters out there that we will all work like the devil to make sure that Mayor Lopez remains the mayor of Belmopan.”
Simeon Lopez
“I’m willing to work with the Honourable Saldivar and I have always said that and I think we sat in here before we made the official results and we sort of worked out the plan that we will come together and mend the fences that were broken during this campaign.”
The winning councillors are: Quita Balona, Amilcar Umana, Pedro Carrillo, Olga Myers, Shawna Banner, Victor Perdomo. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
Meanwhile, in Corozal Town the incumbent mayor, Hilberto Campos, has managed to stave off a challenge from his own deputy, Louis Brooks.
