Belize City house collapses with P.U.P. campaigners inside

Without a doubt, over the next two weeks this newscast will be chock full of political stories, starting with nomination day tomorrow. But tonight there is a story in the news that has a unique political angle. Reports to News Five indicate that on Saturday, Prime Minister Said Musa, the eleven members of the People’s United Party City Council slate, and several other campaigners were visiting with a resident on Sarstoon Street when the wooden house collapsed. We understand that no one was hurt as one side of the building fell approximately a foot and a half. P.U.P. officials will spend the next few days knocking down the house, which they say will be replaced by an entirely new structure. Until the construction work is finished, we understand the owner of the house will be put up at another location.

In related news, word out of the Elections and Boundaries Department tonight is that the Town Council Act does not specify that candidates have to appear in person in order to be nominated. Now that that situation has been sorted out, arrangements have been finalised to allow injured U.D.P. Dangriga mayoral candidate Frank “Pawpa” Mena to be officially placed on the ballot. The plan is that at one-thirty Tuesday afternoon Dangriga’s returning officer, a justice of the peace, and two witnesses will call on Mena at his hospital bed where he will sign an affidavit stating his intention to run for mayor. Following the brief formalities, the returning officer will then head to the Dangriga town hall where the other members of the U.D.P. slate will be officially nominated. Mena was hospitalised following an accident in which he sustained burns to much of his upper body.