U.D.P. announces three new Senators
The United Democratic Party today announced its selections for the three Senate seats it is allotted under the constitution. At a press conference this afternoon Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow prefaced his introduction of the new Senators by saying the choices signal that the U.D.P. can attract talent, and he expects the appointees to use their positions as a stepping-stone to leadership roles on a nationwide level.
One Senator designate who made no bones about his intention to eventually seek a seat in the elected side of the legislature, was Arthur “Turo” Roaches. The retired public officer and former football star hails from Dangriga, and Barrow hopes that his presence will invigorate the U.D.P. machine in the south, a traditional stronghold that has gone solidly blue in the last two elections.
The next selection, Ambrose Tillett, was described by the Party Leader as one of the best minds of his generation. The former B.E.L. employee holds a Master’s Degree in renewable energy and has been a high profile spokesman against his former employer’s Chalillo project.
The final choice for Senator was less obvious. Marcel Cardona is a twenty-eight year old attorney who commutes to Belize City daily from Orange Walk. The graduate of Muffles College, S.J.C. Junior College and U.W.I. is a resident of the Orange Walk East constituency and is expected to replace Elodio Aragon as the U.D.P. standard bearer in that area. Cardona could not appear at today’s press conference since he was arguing a case in the Court of Appeal, but we did snap his picture this evening just after court adjourned.
But while Barrow made his appointments with the 2008 election clearly in mind, he also acknowledged that the next time around, the electoral map of Belize may look quite different. He made it clear that his party would work to ensure that any redistricting plan would be executed fairly.
Dean Barrow, Party Leader, U.D.P.
“If a new exercise is to be carried out, and I would agreed that a new exercise deserves to be carried out, that there would be the kind of consultation and involvement of the Opposition that the democratic process requires. Now, when does re-districting become gerrymandering; that is always the question. So it seems to be that apart from insisting on formal involvement, we will in any case, need to be maintaining an extremely careful watching brief, assuming that we don’t get what we demand, in terms of full participation in such an exercise, because we will have to guard against any effort to gerrymander rather than to redistrict along objective lines. We understand that the government of the day will perhaps try to seek an advantage here or there. But if there is naked gerrymandering, as opposed to genuine redistricting, clearly we will have to have a great deal to say about that and a great deal to do about that.”
Gerrymandering is the process, which the redrawing of constituency boundaries is done in such a way that it blatantly favours one political party. At present, Belize’s twenty-nine electoral districts vary widely in size, with the largest having over four times as many voters as the smallest.
