P.U.P. conventions select new standard bearers

There has been a shake-up in standard bearers following conventions by the People’s United Party over the weekend. A press release from the P.U.P. secretariat indicates that on Sunday, almost twelve hundred people gathered at the National Agricultural Show Grounds to either re-elect incumbent Joaquin Cawich or give newcomer Charles Galvez a chance. When the numbers were tallied, Galvez had pulled off an upset, emerging with six hundred and thirteen votes over Cawich’s five hundred and fifty-eight. There were seventeen spoilt ballots. Galvez is a former senator and the sitting president of the P.U.P. Belize Youth Movement.

From the new capital to the old, voting continued on Sunday in the Port Loyola constituency in a face off between former P.U.P. city council candidates Jenny Craig and Oscar Rosado. A modest one hundred and forty-six residents voted but in the end Rosado claimed a decisive victory with three hundred and three votes to Craig’s one hundred and thirty-six. Rosado will face an uphill battle against the current U.D.P. area representative Anthony “Boots” Martinez.

The P.U.P. political action continues this Sunday in Belize Rural North where candidates Earl Perez, Dwight Gillett, Merickston Nicholson and Amador Pott are all seeking the nomination. On that same day out west, former Mayor Orlando Habet and Jose Lisbey will battle in the newly created Cayo North-East division. As for the U.D.P., their secretariat says all standard bearers have been chosen, with the last endorsement convention coming on Sunday in San Estevan village where Rosendo Urbina will be named as the candidate in Orange Walk Central.