PM says voters want effective government

Today the Prime Minister met the press in Belmopan to talk about the town council sweep. He says national issues were a factor in the campaign and believes that the tensions with Guatemala did influence the turnout in the border areas like Benque and Toledo, but the voters seemed most concerned about municipal matters. He says it made sense to many to have PUP councils working with a PUP central government.

Prime Minister Said Musa

“In other words, it was a common sense decision. I am not fooling myself that people are not sensible enough to realize, in fact I do believe it was an important factor in their minds, that the People’s United Party the government of the day, we are here for the next three years at least. And this must have prayed on their mind that the time has come for cooperation, not confrontation, we have to work with the national government. We need town councils that will work with the national government. That is undoubtedly a factor in the minds of the people.

By and large however, I must tell you that I feel the people went to vote mainly out of concern for their livelihood, the quality of life in their towns and city, and I think those were the real cogent issues that affected their way of thinking. The pocket book, I think the growth in the economy has helped, in term of keeping the people, maintaining their faith in the People’s United Party. And of course it is, whilst an inspiring and very encouraging result for us, it was very humbling experience as well. Because whilst we feel that the people maintain the faith in our vision to move Belize forward, I also recognized that the job ahead of us is still a difficult one, a challenging one, but we will do our best to deliver.”

Prime Minister Musa will discuss the election results and other issues of national concern tonight on One On One with Dickie Bradley.