Opposition ready to mobilize voters for weekend elections in Trial Farm

john briceño

Village Council Elections will be held in the Orange Walk, Belize, Stann Creek and Toledo districts on Sunday and the two political parties are gearing up for the poll. Results from last Sunday’s elections in Independence Village, are being challenged by the People’s United Party on the basis that five of the nine hundred and sixty-four ballots cast were unaccounted for. The PUP won all the councilor seats and the UDP chairman was declared winner of the chairmanship. This weekend, it is anticipated that seats for the village council in Trial Farm, a UDP stronghold in Orange Walk, will be hotly contested and both parties will flex their political muscles. According to opposition leader John Briceño the PUP will mobilize its members to ensure a high voter turnout and calls on the police to step up security.

John Briceño, Party Leader, PUP

“We are organizing of course, the executive from Orange Walk North, is organizing their committee, their campaigners, their greeters and everything so that when Sunday comes that it could be an orderly, that it could be an orderly election.  But what is important and this is where again my appeal goes out to the Police Department that there be enough officers to ensure that we can keep the peace, that everybody could be going there without feeling intimidated, without feeling threatened and that our voters can go, all voters can just walk in and walk out without anybody trying to interfere with them.”

In Placencia the UDP will contest the seven available seats against a roster of independent candidates.  So far of the eleven villages that have held elections so far, the People’s United Party has claimed seven victories with a major win registered in San Juan, formerly held by the UDP.  The ruling party won in two villages while the other two were uncontested. The elections are a test of the strength of the support of the parties.