Smith and Usher look to succeed Price in Pickstock
On March thirty-first two highly regarded candidates will square off in Belize City’s Pickstock Division. At stake is a chance to represent the People’s Untied Party in the next general election in a constituency that has been held by the PUP for as long as anyone can remember. Ann-Marie Williams reports.
Ann-Marie Williams
“It’s not always the best man or woman who wins a party political convention. Party railroading aside, it depends on how many supporters the political aspirant is able to muster to take to the convention to cast that all too important X.”
The X will be marked beside the name Godfrey Smith, who is the Attorney General or Bobbie Usher, head of the Northern Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited. Come Saturday March thirty-first, the date set for the two formidable opponents to face off in the Pickstock Division convention.
Both men are beating the streets and carrying their individual messages. And although they’re not often seen, the foot soldiers are nothing if enthusiastic when it comes to selling their candidates.
Josephine Flowers, Campaigner for Smith
“We’re campaigning, going house to house to meet with the people and there’s no doubt about it, we really get very good response. Every house we go to we get good response, so I don’t have any doubt about it.”
And in case of doubts, there are vivid reminders all over the streets of the Pickstock Division. Bobby even has a song.
Delcia Harris has been on Usher’s campaign bandwagon for only two weeks and says it’s the most challenging two weeks she’s ever encountered.
Delcia Harris, Campaigner for Usher
“Say we go to some people’s house, they tell you to go away, all kinds of things. They don’t want to hear and some of them slam their doors as soon as they see us coming.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“How do you cope as a team?”
Delcia Harris
“If we see them acting like that, we just don’t go back again.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Why should the people of Pickstock believe that you will make a difference if you’re elected?”
Godfrey Smith, Political Aspirant, PUP
“Because I think I have earned a reputation for being a person of high energy, very positive movement and hard work. I think “what do they have to judge by?”, my work as Attorney General so far, my work as secretary general of the PUP, where I worked tirelessly to help the PUP win in a big way, in the general elections in 1998. As well, you can go by my record as Attorney General of approaching two years. The people of Pickstock Division have every reason to hope that with me they will get a candidate that has a very positive outlook… that is based on hard work because the position I occupy right now is not based on any gift, it’s because I’ve been a hard worker all my life.”
Usher himself has been known as a hard worker, first alongside his mother, Miss Jane, who was the representative for that division for two terms. He also worked for his uncle, former Prime Minister and soon to retire Pickstock representative, the Right Honourable George Price.
Ann-Marie Williams
“What would you say to people who would say that Bobby’s running is part of a dynasty, we need to break the dynasty?”
Bobby Usher, Political Aspirant, PUP
“Well there is no dynasty. Bobby is part of a family that their interest is in serving the people. If you look on our slogan, the party slogan is “Serving the People.” My uncle started this party along with others in 1950 and his whole life has been dedicated on the service of people, and I hope to follow in that example.”
Both Usher and Smith are trying to set an example in the area by offering a realizable platform.
Godfrey Smith
“If you were to leave from here and go down at random, any street in the Pickstock Division, I promise you, one of the first things you will observe is many, many derelict homes, abandoned houses. So that’s one of the first things we’ll have to first things that’ll have to be done. Identify all the derelict buildings, find out who the owners are, tear them down and either rebuild proper houses, or use some for community based organisations, sporting clubs and that kind of thing.”
Bobby Usher
“One of my major projects is to take area that is commonly called 55 North Front Street, close to the Northern Fishermen’s Co-op, and that area has a lot of broken houses. We are going to remove those houses, find temporary accommodation for the people that live there, and build two new apartment units. They’ll be lower and upper flats, and we hope to include at least nine families in that complex. There are many homes in the constituency that are in a broken, dilapidated conditions. We would like to help these people in acquiring mortgage financing to build these houses.
Come convention day the eventual winner will be the one who has built, not only homes, but political momentum. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
The closest the People’s United Party ever came to losing the Pickstock Division was in 1974 when PUP Adolfo Lizarraga beat the UDP’s Paul Rodriguez by just four votes.
