Boots and Dolores: toe to toe in Port Loyola
It’s the rematch of a race fought in 1998. At that time the People’s United Party managed to take back a seat that had once been thought completely safe for the U.D.P.. What happens in Port Loyola this time around is being closely watched by observers on all sides… including News 5’s Jacqueline Woods.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
With close to six thousand registered voters–many of them on the lower end of the economic scale–Port Loyola is a politician’s nightmare. But somebody’s got to run things in the Port and that challenge has been taken up by the P.U.P.’s Dolores Balderamos Garcia and U.D.P.’s Anthony “Boots” Martinez.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, P.U.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
“It’s not today that we are campaigning, we keep in constant touch with the voters of Port Loyola throughout the year and we have throughout the term. Yes, there will be some people who would say that they have not seen Miss D for awhile, you know people work out, people come home 7:00, 8:00 at night.”
In 1998, Balderamos Garcia defeated Martinez by over seven hundred votes. Martinez believes he lost that election because he did not spend enough time on the campaign trail and people simply voted for party and not candidate.
Anthony ‘Boots” Martinez, U.D.P Candidate, Port Loyola
“My granny use to always say, no worry about the noise in the market, you check your change. And I think that my lesson from ’98 is part of that lesson and I think that I am checking my change now because I have a good solid campaign team and we have people that we call double agents working for Dolores, but we get the information. So I think we are approaching it on a house to house campaign, me personally.”
Both candidates base their campaigns on the work they say have been done to improve conditions and people’s lives in Port Loyola.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“Some people in Port Loyola, perhaps a minimum amount who would look at the overall achievements of our ministry, of the women’s agenda etcetera and the government on a whole, the P.U.P. government. But by and large in this constituency its bread and butter issues and we have worked from day one to help our people.”
“I would say there are less people living in poverty now. That’s not say that we do not have a lot more work to do but I would be the first one to agree that not every London bridge has been removed, but we have removed a significant amounts of London bridges. Yes, I myself as a representative feel sometimes that we need to do more housing, need to do more infrastructure development. I can use the example of what we call the upper Neal Pen Road, and in speaking with the mayor about one month or two ago he said, Dolores, it’s useless for us to raise Pen Road until the drainage project comes through, and I think that people understand. Mind you, it’s nothing easy to go out there on Pen Road, you are on the bad street, been filling it with the stones so that the whole street doesn’t break up. But I think that people understand that this is not an overnight thing. The drainage project has gone through Lake Independence into the Collet Division by the Raccoon Street Extension, and of course the next phase in a year or so will come into Neal Pen Road Faber’s Road and Jane Usher Boulevard.”
Anthony “Boots” Martinez
“One thing I can say is that we in Port Loyola, me as standard bearer, has built more houses than her in one year time than she has done in five years.”
“And I think that at the end of the day, the houses, even the ones behind Jane Usher Boulevard were some of the worst house that any Prime Minister ever open. Houses weh noh plaster, houses with no paint and those people have to pay one hundred and seventy-five dollars a month for twenty years. I think those things are an injustice. Look at these houses, these people already pay for them and they are sixty dollars a month for five years. This is 2003, these people got their houses in 1997, so this is six years. All these people done pay for their houses.”
On March fifth, Port Loyolans will decide who they want to represent them. However, both Candidates remain confident that they will win the hearts and votes of the citizens.
Anthony “Boots” Martinez
“I like this campaign because I think that for the first time politically I get a good reading in terms of a lot of people saying to me, well, Mr. Boots, we voted for Miss Dolores, we think that she dah mi wah woman and she mi wah do good for the community; some say well, I nevah come do the political work, I took them for granted, I nevah come ask fi support, Miss Dolores came. So I think the whole thing turn around.”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“This is no time to sound over confident, but we have steadily been doing our work. And so I am now doing our little tours with the street captains making sure that we listen to people’s concerns, and there are many.”
Martinez says if he should be elected he will work to ensure that there are jobs available for his constituents. Meanwhile, Balderamos Garcia says she will continue to work to improve education and infrastructural development in the area. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
