Corozal

The Northern districts of Belize have been traditional strongholds for the ruling People’s United Party, particularly Corozal. So if the U.D.P. can make inroads here it would likely herald a nationwide victory. News Five’s Karla Vernon reports.

Karla Vernon, Reporting
The Corozal Bay was calm today and so was voting at Corozal Town?s three polling stations. The turnout was somewhat light in the morning, but appeared to be picking up around noon. Florencio Marin Jr., who helped run the P.U.P. campaign for this northern city hall, says polling Area 40 is a traditional P.U.P. stronghold. He was among those outside St. Paul?s Anglican School this morning.

Karla Vernon
?Was this run as a local campaign or a national campaign or both??

Florencio Marin Jr., P.U.P. Activist
?A little bit of both, a little bit of both. National in the sense that you had the Prime Minister come several times to do house to house campaigns. We have Minister Godfrey Smith, minister Briceño came in, just to lend support to the team, so a little bit of both. And then the team itself went out and did their house to house campaign.?

That house to house campaigning left Mario Narvaez, a P.U.P. candidate for mayor, feeling very sure of himself and his running mates today.

Mario Narvaez, P.U.P. Mayoral Candidate
?Let me tell you, I feel very confident. Our machinery is in place, I don?t see how we can ever lose. We are doing four to one we are taking out right now. They bring one voter, we are bringing out four. So definitely our machinery is in place and the people are responding.?

Karla Vernon
?What were the issues that you were confronted with most during the campaign??

Mario Narvaez
?Well, when we campaign we went out there working on accomplishments. I mean, this is my third term as mayor and we were campaigning pertaining to our manifesto that we presented there years ago and it?s lone accomplishments. We had one or two concerns, particular about house lots. Voters eighty and over, they are concerned about owning property, so that was one of our main concerns here. Otherwise, our town is clean, beautiful, and the best throughout the country. Number one.?

But the U.D.P. mayoral candidate Hilberto Campos says his party has the advantage and issues such as the sale of the land on which historic Fort Barlee stands will sway voters to vote U.D.P.

Hilberto Campos, U.D.P. Candidate for Mayor
?These people are bragging about accomplishments, regardless of the failure to complete their manifestos year after year and after year. And that was presented to the people of Corozal and they analysed it and we forwarded our plan of action based on committed, not promises that we that we cannot break and the people have responded tremendously. It is for granted that we are gonna have a U.D.P. town council in Corozal.?

?You cannot sell something like Fort Barlee. What they sell was the inside. I mean it?s an insult to intelligence of the Corozal people, you are trying to convince them now that this is the right thing we did regardless of what the people are telling you. So he claims that I don?t know about land or whatever and he said, this guy is talking about the sale of Fort Barley, he said we cannot sell those monuments there, we sold the land inside. So this has no kind of logistics behind what he is really saying, right and he is insulting the intelligence of the Corazalenos.?

While the U.D.P. and the P.U.P. both believe City Hall belongs to them, the We the People Movement fielded an entire slate for this election. Mayoral candidate Hipolito Bautista thinks Corozalenos have had enough of the reds and the blues. He and his team are urging a change to yellow.

Hipolito Bautista, We the People Mayoral Candidate
?We are going to get the silent majority. I don?t know if you agree, but no community is divided fifty-fifty between two parties; there?s always a swing vote. And from our experience, the swing vote is the majority; that?s why we call it the silent majority. And we feel that because of the?what the U.D.P. represents right now is a weak team. What the P.U.P. represents is a team that has been given the chance; they have not delivered the jobs in particular. Sure they may have fixed up the park, clean the drains, yes Corozal is cleaner. But it doesn?t put food on the table and that?s what people here want. There is forty-four percent poverty in Corozal and twenty-nine percent of children go without three meals a day. We?ve got to address that, we?ve got to put the accent on the right syllable.?

Reporting for News Five, I am Karla Vernon.