U.D.P. Secures Dangriga after P.M. Visit
A split council in Dangriga, where the U.D.P. has a majority hold, but the P.U.P. made a small mark with one councilor candidate. Both main political parties faced off in the culture capital, but there were two other candidates on the ballot. Mayoral candidate Chris Lewis and Winston Francisco offered themselves for office under a third party called Unity Upliftment Party. Andrea Polanco has more from Dangriga.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
It’s a split municipal council for Dangriga. Six U.D.P. candidates and one P.U.P. candidate were victorious in Wednesday’s Municipal Elections. Incumbent Francis Humphreys was returned to the mayoral seat in the Culture Capital. He received one thousand six hundred and ninety-two votes. The only P.U.P. candidate to secure a seat is Erica Jang. She garnered one thousand five hundred and seventy-four votes.
Francis Humphreys
Francis Humphreys, Mayor-elect, Dangriga
“You have to take this with humility. This is not a time to be boastful or anyway inflated by this. No. The people spoke loud and clear but I am sure there’s a message somewhere in this. There’s more that you can do. There’s more that we expect from you. And so the standard has been raised.”
Joining Humphreys at the Town Hall are U.D.P. Councilor candidates Aaron Gongora who topped the polls with one thousand seven hundred and three votes; Gary Francisco – one thousand six hundred and eight votes; Alexander Joseph, one thousand six hundred and six votes; Earth Lopez, one thousand six hundred and nine votes; Cheryl Molina one thousand six hundred and forty-nine votes and P.U.P. councilor candidate Erica Jang. U.D.P. Councilor Candidate Yadira Diego didn’t win her seat. She received one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight votes. Humphreys says that even though he has a split council he intends to work with Jang.
Francis Humphreys
“It will work itself out. I happen to know Ms Erica Jang quite well. She was one of my teachers at Ecumenical when was Principal there. So have a good measure of the lady’s capabilities. And while we come from different deals and ideas; n the end the people have selected all of us to serve them. And so, as councilors and as the mayor and the person charged with charting the way forward, and of course as the leader with the majority element in the council, we have no other choice no other desire on my part to make sure that the three years ahead of us are even more successful than the three that we had before.”
And so Humphreys says that his first one hundred days in office will be about the all the work he promised in his manifesto.
Francis Humphreys
“Addressing the concreting of Aranda’s crescent. Then we have several parks and playgrounds that we want to add to our list of good spots for our children and for recreation in general. Oh! We have lots and lots of good things to do.”
There are five thousand eight hundred and sixty-one registered voters n Dangriga. Of that number, three thousand two hundred and seventy-seven persons went to the polls. So, a total of two thousand five hundred and eighty-four persons didn’t vote in the elections. Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.
