On the Campaign Trail in Carolyn’s Collet

She is one of three women on the opposition slate for the March seventh general elections. Carolyn Trench-Sandiford is also a deputy leader of the People’s United Party. In the tide that swept across the opposition in the last election, she lost, but this time around she says the powerful area representative in the Collet doesn’t faze her.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

People’s United Party Collet Division standard bearer, Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, is one of very few women contesting a seat in the upcoming General Elections.  Her opponent, seasoned politician Patrick Faber, has been a staple in that constituency for the past two decades.  Despite having entered the political scene only five years ago Trench-Sandiford prides herself as the ideal candidate to bring about change for residents in that community.

Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, P.U.P. Standard Bearer, Collet

Carolyn Trench-Sandiford

“I want to see a community where people have access to affordable healthcare, particularly families who are troubled and challenged with issues like HIV/AIDS, cancer, dialyses.  These are some of the pressing issues but more importantly and, perhaps, something that is close to my heart, I want every person and every family in Collet to have a piece of land and for every person to have a passport that links them to the Belizean soil.  I believe very strongly that I bring change and prosperity for the people of Collet.”

Isani Cayetano

“Working in that constituency for the past five or so years what would you identify as one of the biggest challenges facing the residents in that neighborhood?”

Carolyn Trench-Sandiford

“I would say jobs, jobs and more jobs.  In Collet today we have fifty-five percent unemployment, particularly among the young people between the ages of seventeen to twenty-five.”

That demographic, according to Faber, has benefited from other forms of assistance, primarily in the area of education.  He has gone on record to laud his accomplishments during his term in office.  Achievements, Trench-Sandiford says, that are underwhelming.

Carolyn Trench-Sandiford

“It saddens me actually to know that as an area rep and who boasts, according to his interview, of being there twenty years, twenty years, he does not see some of the many issues and the challenges that are confronting that community.  It was a privilege, to my mind, for him and it was an honor to have been elected, he should have served the people.”

Trench-Sandiford believes that after four years as an area representative with ministerial position pertinent to his chief manifesto pledge, Faber could have done more to improve the quality of life for residents of Collet but he is far too removed from their plight.

Patrick Faber

Carolyn Trench-Sandiford

“If he calls it success as the Minister of Education with a budget of two hundred million dollars every year and not fulfilling the first promise he made to the residents of Collet, the development of the first primary school in the division then what can I say? I sit with people. I talk with people because I walked the constituency and I’m in the constituency, unlike the current area rep who doesn’t go into the constituency but rather passes through the Boom Road and goes home.  So he’s not familiar with the constituency.  In fact he spends most of his time sitting by Brads with a security instead of being in the constituency.”

Finally, Trench-Sandiford took time to rectify a previous statement made by Faber who alleged that there were many false land titles being offered to voters during the 2008 election campaign.

Carolyn Trench-Sandiford

“I facilitated a process in the Collet Division to provide lands for the Belizean people in Collet.  The Ministry of Natural Resources participated as the legal authority and the minister, the minister, unprecedented, came to Collet.  I was someone who brought governance to the people.  In fact the Ministry of Natural Resources copied that and is now doing it.  So when I listened to the honorable Patrick Faber talk about success in Collet I have to ask myself how does one measure success?”

Success for both candidates begins with victory at the polls.  It is incumbent upon the residents of Collet however, to determine which of the two best fits the leadership role to effect much needed change in that constituency. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.