Mayor Wagner Eyeballing Albert Division as His Next Possible Political Bid
As you heard earlier, Mayor Bernard Wagner is not interested in running for the office of mayor for a third term. In fact, he admitted today that he is looking at the big leagues hereafter, and he has his eyes set on the area where his office at City Hall is located – Albert. But how would that fare off between him and the P.U.P.’s Paul Thompson, who came within 42 votes of winning the seat in 2020? Thompson has been quietly working behind the scenes to close the gap on his political rival, the U.D.P’s Tracy Panton, who dealt him a major defeat in the previous elections. Now that Thompson has been able to place himself within reach of the seat, it is like that he will be unwilling to step aside to usher in a new candidate. But today, the Mayor said he has spoken with Thompson about it, but that both of them are carefully looking at how the upcoming redistricting exercise may reshape the Albert constituency.
Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
“I met with Paul face-to-face because I am a face-to-face person – I don’t go behind the back – and I told Paul about late last year or early this year, I told him what’s his plan for Albert. I am a straight up person, I said cause I may have interest in it. I told him straight like that. And Paul told me he is still looking, just as myself, at the landscape. So you can’t be making any plans as yet. You never know how that redistricting will play out. So I believe most of the area reps in the city feel the same way. And so, I leave that for down the road.”