Is Rural Central ready for Dolores?

It’s political season and on the campaign trail today we caught up with Dolores Balderamos Garcia as she prepares for the March seventh elections. Dolores is a former area representative and minister of government. She is among four women on the P.U.P. ballot for the upcoming general elections. In Belize Rural Central, a constituency which the last census found has a larger population than that of Punta Gorda Town, she is facing an uphill battle against her incumbent.  An attorney by profession, she says she can make a difference. News Five’s Andrea Polanco reports.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

The Belize Rural Central Constituency has about six thousand registered voters and is extended over an expanse geographical area. For Dolores Balderamos Garcia, transitioning from Port Loyola Division to Rural Belize means hitting the ground early and canvassing from door to door. And today we caught up with this hopeful campaigning in Ladyville, who says that to underscore her political platform of competency and inclusion of all, tenets of the People’s United Party, her one-on-one is critical:

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, P.U.P. Standard Bearer, Belize Rural Central

“Well, we are running on a platform of really giving better attention and positive change to the people of Belize Rural Central. My message is that better can and will happen with my candidacy and with the People’s United Party. The platform is really one of improvement, competent leadership, competent representation, not only for Ladyville, but also for Lord’s Bank, Hattieville, and of course all the other smaller villages; as you know, Belize Rural Central is a very wide spread out area which includes Gales Point.”

And for that reason, most importantly to Balderamos-Garcia, these ground visits on her campaign trail gives her the opportunity to identify areas of concerns and hear the cries of the electorate of a constituency she says has been dealt the hand of neglect:

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

“As you can see we are in a little zone here on a street off of Quilter Avenue and the infrastructure is just basically not there, you know, rutted streets, big, big holes all over the place and we have to be able to show that better can be down for Ladyville because Ladyville is an extended suburb and as we know there is a lot of infrastructure needs and we do intend to address that. Last night we were in the B.D.F. Housing Area, off the Lord’s Bank Road and just to give you an example, way back in that area some of the streets have not even been put in and in four years under a representative and a government of the U.D.P., not even a street light has been put in some of the residential areas. Now, I have to cry a little bit of shame on that because clearly, if you are offering yourself to represent people, you have to be there for the people. The major concerns are a little bit of attention to the communities, lights, streets and drainage, the cleanliness of the area, the upkeep of the area and then of course the larger concerns, about education, about health. And we have made a pledge, under the P.U.P. Government, a new P.U.P. Government, we will definitely commence the high school in what we call the Western Zone of Hattieville.”

But to make good on those promises, the P.U.P. Standard Bearer says that she plans to forge ahead with her work on the ground, leading right up to Election Day, in getting the voters out:

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

“So we are working very, very hard on the ground. We have kicked off our full campaign. We are in high gear now because we are only twenty-eight or twenty nine days away today being the seventh of February. But I believe that we are optimistic but as George Price used to say, ‘Elections are won on election day,’ so we are not getting over confident in any way and we know that we have to fight for every last vote and we are asking for each voter’s support.”

And that support is needed, for Balderamos-Garcia is challenging, the United Democratic Party’s Michael Hutchinson, area rep for the last four years and a grass-roots candidate but she says, change must come for Belize Rural Central:

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

“I think we owe it to the people of this constituency to have better representation. I appeal to every voter. I always look people in their face, shake their hand and ask for their support and say, ‘I am asking for you to support me’ because I do believe that we have to bring better to this area. And the reason then, I would say why we would ask for the people of Belize Rural Central support for me, is that I will offer the kinda of  representation for this area that is sorely lacking and we can bring to this area, with Dolores and the P.U.P., ‘right, right everybody?’ ‘Right, right’ “PUP all the way, Dolores, yes.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.

To give the story balance, since Monday News Five has reached out to Michael Hutchinson for an interview but he hasn’t replied to any of our calls or text messages. On Wednesday, we continue on the campaign trail with Yolanda Schakron in Lake Independence.