Belize City

It was a municipal campaign that in many ways seemed more like a full scale general election. The incumbent P.U.P., holding six out of nine urban areas, including Belize City, was vulnerable and the U.D.P. leadership for months has been confidently predicting a major shift in the balance of power. In a few hours we’ll know if that confidence was warranted as News Five teams with Love F.M. for nationwide coverage that will last until the winners have been declared. We’ll begin with a review of today’s voting in the seven towns and two cities, starting right here in the old capital.

Before seven this morning, U.D.P. Mayoral Candidate Zenaida Moya headed to the polling station at the Belize City Centre.

Janelle Chanona
?You?re an early voter, any particular reason why you came out so early??

Zenaida Moya, U.D.P. Mayoral Candidate
?Yes I have to go around all the polling stations to ensure that everything is in place. I know they are, but you know me, I like to ensure, confirm for myself.?

Janelle Chanona
?Looking back at your campaign, what is the one thing you think you did to swing the votes in your favour??

Zenaida Moya
?Well I will tell you that I went house to house. I don?t take anything for granted about popularity or anything else; that?s not in my head. For me it was hard work, commitment and actually performing by going around house to house along with my team and meeting with the people and sharing our plan of action.?

Janelle Chanona
?Any regrets? Anything you wish you might have done??

Zenaida Moya
?No, no regrets. I feel pretty good.?

Janelle Chanona
?Zenaida, in one of your political ads you were described as a people?s champion. If for some reason you do not win today, what?s next for Zenaida Moya??

Zenaida Moya
?Well the party has already asked me, win, lose or draw that they want me to stay with them. As a matter of fact, Mr. Finnegan he called me yesterday?I believe it was yesterday morning and he said, ?Zenaida, we want you stay with this party, we want to see you with this party.? I won?t tell you all that he told me, but I will tell you this, that everybody has told me this and everybody wants me to continue being with the United Democratic Party.?

In the Prime Minister?s stomping grounds in the Fort George division, we found a party leader filled with optimism … along with a healthy dose of reality.

Janelle Chanona
?P.M., you?ve always maintained to us that elections are won on election day. What?s happening with the P.U.P. machinery today to ensure your victory??

Said Musa, Leader, People?s United Party
?Well our people have come out in their T-shirts, the campaigners are rearing to go?they?ve been looking forward to this day. So I think we will see a very good show of strength on the part of the P.U.P. today.?

Janelle Chanona
?Earlier in the campaign you told me that it?s tough for the incumbent to come back and win again. What do you think you?ve done with your party as far as sealing that decision for the voter??

Said Musa
?Well we?ve gone back to the base; we?ve gone back to our roots. We?ve gone back directly to the voter, in their homes. This has been a campaign, a ground war if you like, and I think this is what will make the difference. True enough, we had I would say the best P.R. campaign in any city council or town council election, this has been the best. But the real difference will come as far as the ground war as I call it, going back to the base, touching the lives of the voters in a direct way, and I think that is what will pay out in the end.?

Janelle Chanona
?20/20 hindsight … anything you could have done differently??

Said Musa
?Maybe some of the interviews that I gave, I could have been a little more circumspect, but by and large, I think I have worked myself over the last eight weeks and gone everything. I think I have done my best, so I have absolutely no regrets, whatever the outcome.?

Janelle Chanona
?Should the P.U.P. lose today Mr. Musa do you think that?s an indictment against your party and your administration??

Said Musa
?I don?t think so. Let?s face it Janelle, we started in this marathon way behind, no doubt about it and I think not only have we caught up, but we have the edge now, but it?s up to the voters. My main concern is that we have a peaceful, free, fair election today … and things will continue in a democratic way in Belize.?

And by eight, the process had been exactly so … the first casualty of the day being this pick-up truck, which missed the turn at the corner of Hydes Lane and North Front Street.

Two hours later, it was a solitary Dean Barrow that walked across Coney Drive to cast his vote at Polling Station 3A.

Barrow says the stakes are high, because today?s election will decide more than the seats in the country?s city councils and town boards.

Janelle Chanona
?Mr Barrow, having just cast your vote, how are you feeling about today for your party?

Dean Barrow, Leader, U.D.P.
?Very good. There is nothing I?ve seen since morning which changes my assessment that we will win and we will win big, so I feel very, very good.?

Janelle Chanona
?There is always talk of a political machinery on election day, tell us what your party is doing as far as getting your machinery in gear??

Dean Barrow
?What absolutely needs to be done. That is, we have vehicles, we have our greeters, we have our street captains, we are running the lists, checking to see who?s come, who?s not get come, who needs to be picked up, so the usual. Of course, most of the people working for us are old hands at this and we?ve had training sessions, party training sessions for some of the newer people that are working with us today. So we are superbly confident that everything is in place.?

Janelle Chanona
?Knowing that is a national election in the two cities and in the town boards, do you have priority areas that you feel the party must win to send a message?

Dean Barrow
?No, all municipalities are equal certainly. Certainly of course with respect to those municipalities that are bigger, you would feel especially good if you won those. And principal among those is Belize City where the largest population concentration is and where the largest number of individual constituencies is. So you would especially want to win Belize City, but when you actually do your final tally, Belize City is one municipality just as the other municipalities each work out to one municipality. So we are trying to assign equal priority to each and every single municipality, and that?s the way it has to be.?

Janelle Chanona
?Mr. Barrow a lot of the conversation about the U.D.P. campaign has been about a statement that you?ve made, saying that if your party doesn?t win today that you would resign. One, do you regret making that statement in so far as people might be thinking you?ve staked your political career on this one election??

Dean Barrow
?Not at all, because I don?t see it as staking a political career. I see it as trying to the very end to do the right thing. People seemed to have misunderstood and from that point of view, I regret making the statement because it?s been absolutely misinterpreted. I?m not suggesting that I would quit, I am suggesting that I would resign as leader. I would still be more than prepared; in fact I would still be very much active in party affairs and still help the party as much as I can. But I do feel that if you are the leader of a mass party and you run a number of elections and you haven?t won, there comes a point in time at which you must be honest with yourself, you must be honest with your party, you must be honest with the electorate and you say to all concerned, well perhaps, somebody can do a better job.?

In the Freetown, voter turnout was brisk, with both political camps agreeing that by ten, more than six hundred residents had cast ballots.
Following his visit to the booth, P.U.P. mayoral candidate Marshall Nunez talked E Day strategy.

Marshall Nunez, P.U.P. Mayoral Candidate
?All the fundamentals have been done, we?ve done all the legwork, we?ve done all the consultation, we went back and get the confirmation. So it is now up to the electorate to go and make that decision, but I feel pretty confident.?

Janelle Chanona
?During the P.U.P. campaign, you had a low profile; you kept it on the down low … Do you think that will pay off today??

Marshall Nunez
?Down low? I don?t think so … if you call staying out of the attention of the media down low, maybe. But I?ve been beating the pavement, I?ve gone into many, many homes across the city. I don?t think I?ve been on the down low, I think I?ve been doing the fundamentals, doing the basic things, going house to house and trying to solicit the support of the residents of Belize City.?

Janelle Chanona
?As an incumbent councillor, Marshall what do you think your strongest point was with the voters??

Marshall Nunez
?The fact that I have always been there for them and I think I have been one of the most available politicians over the past ten years, accessible … people can always find me and I was able to hear their concerns, respond to it in more ways that I can and I think that has been the sticking point for me, people know me because I?ve been there for them.?

Janelle Chanona
?Marshall, you have been involved in politics almost a decade now, if for some reason you should not win today, what?s next for Marshall Nunez??

Marshall Nunez
?Well this is a job that I am seeking, if I don?t, then I?ll have to see another employment someplace, but that is the reality that we are looking for a job and if I am not given this job by the people of Belize City, then I will need to look for job elsewhere.?

And for independent candidate, Estevan Perrera, good working relations with both parties will go a long way.

Estevan Perrera, Mayoral Candidate, N.A.B.R.
?I am not going to spoil nothing. I am willing to work with the U.D.P. or the P.U.P.; that?s what I am here for. I am here to work for the people of Belize and my country. The political parties of this country have to stop thinking about parties, they have to look at the people and the country and that is what is going to make the difference. And that is why I think I am going to make a big difference and I could well win this election. Believe me, it can happen.?