Mayor Moya hopes to lead U.D.P. slate to another victory
And in Belize City today, the mood was different as the U.D.P. City Council slate kicked off their street campaign at the party headquarters. While the weather did put a damper on their outdoor activities, incumbent Mayor Zenaida Moya and her team of ten did not let it stop from moving forwarding with their launch. According to Moya, while her council has been experiencing various controversies, she believes that they have achieved a lot and residents in should keep moving forward with a U.D.P. slate… not surprisingly, her incumbent councilors and newcomers agree.
Zenaida Moya, Seeking Re-election as Mayor
“I feel very good; I believe our entire team feels good going in. we feel very confident about this election.”
Kendra Griffith
“Going into the last elections as you were contesting that, you were seen as this golden girl, do you feel that the controversies over the last couple of years have tarnished your image and you’ve lost some ground with the people as a result of that? And is there any fear that this may jeopardize your election this time around?”
Zenaida Moya
“Well, ultimately I feel that the convention did go, there were certain things that happened because of the convention. But I think the convention was a successful one and I feel very good about the results of the convention and that speaks for itself. I feel that residents will go to the polls understanding that there will be different disputes, but ultimately they will look at all the achievements that we have been able to bring to the city that all of us love so dearly.”
Laura Esquivel, Seeking Re-election as Councillor
“Despite the controversies here and there that have come up, I actually think controversy is a bit of a strong word, to describe everything. We’ve show that we can sit together, we can work together, we can continue to produce. There has been many things that have been accomplished in the last two or three years that haven’t be done in the fifteen years to us being there and we are very proud of that and we will be showcasing those accomplishments in this campaign and that is why people should vote for us.”
Roger Espejo, First-time Candidate
“I too am from Belize City, I too feel for the challenges of Belize City in terms of the problems and the challenges we face; garbage collection, infrastructure, streets, drainage, those types of things. I wanted to become involved and see how I could help, so I can volunteer myself and apply myself at a public office level and apply a little bit of what I know and see if we could move ahead.”
Kendra Griffith
“What do you think you add to this slate?”
Roger Espejo
“Well, first of all, relentless ambition. I really want to see this place look a little bit better than how I found it when I got in and generally a love for Belize City.”
Laura Esquivel
“We’ve done a lot in terms of street patching in terms of adjusting streets that maybe if we didn’t have the up front funds to do the paving, a lot of grading. I would say that in the first year we graded over two hundred streets; that’s quite an accomplishment. We paved over eight streets; as you know cost approximately one million Belize dollars per mile and we’ve been able to work through different ways to pave as many of the streets. You’ve seen Albert and Regent Streets of course, there been adoptions of many parks and playgrounds and many of the roundabouts are already adopted in terms of bringing the businesses community to work with us in that way. We’ve had great sporting programs, councilor Willoughby was in charge of that and he’s been very successful to have sporting programs. Again, that’s not a major part of our mandate but it brings so much to the residents of Belize and of course, we now own buildings that were previously being rented, for example the traffic department. We’re tackling the garbage situation in terms of the bill that has passed in the House. We are also looking at other alliances in terms of bringing in finances into the country. In the next couple weeks, the I.D.B. along with the Government of Belize will be officially launching the I.D.B. tourism sustainability project. A component in that project will also go to Belize City infrastructure. We’re looking at a World Bank agreement also for another infrastructure project in Belize City. So when we’re looking at infrastructure projects, we’re looking at the creation of jobs for our youths and for skilled people. We’re looking at the upliftment, we’re looking at even creating civic pride, infrastructure projects, although they’re not only concrete. They also have a human part to it in terms of the civic pride being built in our city for our residents to take pride in where we live.”
Kendra Griffith
“You’ve seen the P.U.P. slate, any competition?”
Zenaida Moya
“No, no, I mean we feel very good that this slate right here is one that will ultimately be victorious come Wednesday, March fourth. We have no doubt about it.”
The group of eleven includes five newcomers and six incumbents.
