Price vs. Elrington in Pickstock
It’s not toy guns that politicians are using these days… and thank goodness it’s not real guns either. Rather it’s still a war of words. In tonight’s segment on “Elections ’98” we’ll cover the battle in Pickstock, where a legendary incumbent is under siege from a determined challenger.
Wilfred Elrington, U.D.P., Pickstock
“With respect to the Pickstock division, the more immediate issues are simply helping the people get through from day to day. The Pickstock division is a division where a lot of the people are not employed and a lot of them are in the lower economic strata. And for those people, they are like the people in the United States who the government of the United States would assist with aid, welfare. The governments of Germany or the United Kingdom would also assist with welfare and aid, because they know of the difficulties that many of them have. And what I have been trying to do is to meet those immediate problems that the people in Pickstock have for good housing: housing where they are not getting wet, housing where they are relatively comfortable, the emergency needs that they have for medical attention and other health facilities, emergency needs for books, emergency needs for light, water and just those general day to day things.”
George Price, P.U.P., Pickstock
“The main issues are the lack of jobs and the need for more and better housing. Also the people have been suffering injustices and misery because of the bad policies of the outgoing government. They want jobs, they want houses, they want land and in general they have been suffering the injustices and the misery of the past five years. I’m ready. I’ve been serving the people and with God’s help and good health, I intend to continue serving the people.”
Q: “You’re an outgoing Senator. Your opponent is a former Prime Minister. What is the one thing you think that will put Senator Elrington one step ahead of George Price in the August twenty seven polls?”
Wilfred Elrington
“I think my track record in the Pickstock division. From all that we have heard and that I have heard in the Pickstock division is that Mr. Price himself has done very, very little if anything for this division. Whereas he may have done for the nation as a whole, he himself has done next to nothing for the Pickstock division. He has not provided any assistance whatsoever to the people of Pickstock and that is going to be, to my mind, his greatest downfall in this division.”
Q: “Your opponent, Mr. Wilfred Elrington is untested at national politics; you’ve been a former Prime Minister. Does that give you an added edge to beating Mr. Elrington in the elections?”
George Price
“The Pickstock division has always, the voters of the Pickstock division, the majority of them have supported the People’s United Party and we are working and we are trusting that majority will continue into the next elections.”
Wilfred Elrington
“I would like to think that it is imperative; it is very, very important that we see Belize as part of a wider world and that we see ourselves competing for our very survival in a wider world. And that is what I would like in fact to bring to the consciousness of the Belizean people. If we understand, if we can, if I am successful in conveying to the nation, the importance of seeing ourselves competing against Japan, competing against the United Kingdom, competing against Germany for our survival and all that requires. If I can get that kind of awareness going, I think I would have in fact achieved my goal in large measure.”
Q: “If you’re elected to the House of Representatives again, what will George Price the representative offer, not only Pickstock, but the rest of Belize?”
George Price
“We’ll offer, we’ll support the manifesto, the national manifesto “Strike Three” which addresses itself to all these problems nationwide which I’ve just mentioned: the need for more jobs, more housing, agriculture, land, credit for the farmers, improved health services, improved educational services. All these things are in the manifesto “Strike Three” which will be presented sometime this week.”
Q: “The redistricting and re-drawing the boundaries of Pickstock, will that affect you positively or negatively in this election?”
Wilfred Elrington
“That would very likely affect me positively. I would not be, I thought that based on the work that they had done over the last five years, we should have won very comfortably. The new area that was given to us – B.E.C. layout area – from my own analysis, very many of the people are very staunch supporters of the United Democratic Party so that should give us an additional edge.”
Q: “Mr. Price, redrawing of the boundaries of the Pickstock division, how do you think that will affect your chances of beating Wilfred Elrington and winning again?”
George Price
“Well in the Pickstock division, the majority of voters have always supported the People’s United Party and this pattern of voting, I expect will extend into the additional area, from Mapp Street to Farmer’s Market. I’ve visited several times and I’ve seen the support here and we’re hoping the pattern of the old part of Pickstock, that the original part will also extend to the additional area.”
The saying that every vote counts will be especially true in Pickstock as it is the smallest of the nation’s twenty nine constituencies, with less than fifteen hundred registered voters.
