Just twenty-three days from a municipal election, supporters of the People’s United Party descended in the city seven years after its last national convention. The Opposition, on Sunday, took full advantage of the opportunity to galvanize its base and give the Old Capital a show. They came by the thousands, men, women and youths from […]
The National Convention’s primary business aside, the P.U.P. also has a lot to say about the major issues of the day. From crime to Guatemala, the party produced a number of resolutions outlining its plans and pleas to the government. Reporter Aaron Humes has more on this facet of the convention. Aaron Humes, Reporting […]
The P.U.P. is counting on the surge of energy presented on Sunday to prevail less than a month from now. But with the U.D.P. already boasting of sweeping all sixty-seven seats including Party leader John Briceño’s native Orange Walk Town, where does the Opposition think they have a chance? Briceño was not cowed, placing great […]
Lake Independence area rep Cordel Hyde is the acknowledged field general of the P.U.P. in Belize City. It will be his task to shepherd voters to the polls for Bernard Wagner and the P.U.P. slate of municipal candidates, but as he acknowledged on Sunday, it won’t be easy. Wagner and his team face twelve years […]
As you heard earlier the P.U.P. is demanding a greater say in the education campaign on the Belize-Guatemala issue. But as to taking a formal position on the coming referendum on taking the dispute to the International Court of Justice, party leader John Briceño is less concerned. As he himself admits, the party is squarely […]
And while the P.U.P. effectively countered the suggestion of disunity on Sunday, another elephant in the room is financing. The party has consistently maintained that it will not accept campaign monies as quid pro quo for political favors for when, especially and including Lord Michael Ashcroft. But the United Democratic Party has once again raised […]
A four-year contract renewal for Candice Burke to remain city administrator, along with four other directors, has brought outgoing mayor Darrell Bradley under fire. On Wednesday, he confirmed that a new agreement between the Belize City Council and Burke had been signed back in November 2017. Bradley contends that the purpose of the extension is […]
The United Democratic Party remains at the helm of central government until general elections are called. It means that until then, all municipal bodies will be functioning under the leadership of the Barrow administration. At the launch of the U.D.P. manifesto last Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber hinted that if cities and towns were […]
Since postponing its national convention a few weeks ago due to inclement weather, the People’s United Party has been busy organizing what it is calling the biggest political gathering that Belizeans will ever witness. With less than a month away from the March seventh municipals, gears are in motion to mobilize as many as fifteen […]
A protest was held today in front of the Elections and Boundaries offices in Santa Elena. Supporters, as well as candidate councillors of the People’s United Party, came out to decry what they allege, is the padding of the voter’s list in the western municipalities. In the Twin Towns, the P.U.P. has been out of […]
During the year-long immigration hearings of the Senate Select Committee, the former director of Immigration Ruth Meighan confirmed that at least two thousand persons, who did not qualify, illegally obtained nationality before the 2012 elections. The P.U.P. has maintained that aided by the U.D.P. politicians, these persons were able to vote in the last general […]
In our ongoing series on mayoral candidates, we headed to the southernmost town of Punta Gorda. The population is mixed and there are just under four thousand voters who are expected to cast their ballots on March seventh. The town faces a myriad of issues which growing municipalities’ experience, especially in the area of garbage […]
While several current Belize City councilors will be sweating it out on the night of March seventh to see whether they will still have jobs at City Hall, City Administrator Candice Burke is sitting pretty. In fact, her latest contract extension, for four years, will outlast the council to be elected on that Wednesday. It […]
Mayor Bradley admitted that he had given contracts to city directors who are not covered for tenure by the Municipal Services Regulations. He says that standardizing and streamlining the administrative posts in all municipalities is needed to provide a “public service” for municipalities which acts much like that established by the central government. Darrell […]
If you travel through the southernmost town of Punta Gorda, you are likely to be hit by the unsightly accumulation of garbage. Solid waste management is an issue that plagues the residents. The tons of garbage are simply disposed of in an area of town where it is dumped along a feeder road. Tonight, News […]
The scandal that is the forty-million-dollar loan to the former Universal Health Services, compounded with interest of more than fifty million dollars, continues to reverberate in the public consciousness. The government is making a last-ditch effort to stave off potential payment by taking a pair of arguments to the Caribbean Court of Justice which ordered […]
It’s definitely election season, but not much has been heard from the third party-alternative camps apart from Belize City’s mayoral candidate Ernesto Torres. That is until today, when the Belize Progressive Party held a low-key launch of its countrywide municipal slates. Eighteen candidates will contest, including a full slate in Punta Gorda, the stronghold of […]
It has been legally due at least twice since it was first completed in 1997, but for various reasons was put off and postponed. We are talking about a complete re-registration of voters across the country, which should nominally take place every decade. Earlier, we told you that the Belize Progressive Party took a pause […]
The Elections and Boundaries Department has released the particulars for the next pit-stop in the race to March seventh. In our previous newscasts, we have showed you most of the aspirants for political office in the nine municipalities, but they are not candidates unless and until they have visited the returning officers in each municipality […]
As many a weary Belize City resident can tell you, we have learned to appreciate the silences between the outbursts of gun and other violence we report nightly on the daily news. The trick has become managing those periods of calm through mediation efforts like those led by Dianne Finnegan, Nuri Muhammad and ACP Chester […]
While women have been making greater appearances on the political ballot, Belize still has some way to go toward true gender equality. The Opposition People’s United Party has made greater strides than most, producing the country’s first woman parliamentarian, first female speaker, first female Cabinet Minister and a host of others. But this past weekend, […]
As the March seventh elections draw closer, temperatures are running high in Cayo where the two political parties are clashing and violence is emerging. On Thursday evening, a young man alleges that he was beaten up by the campaign team led by U.D.P. mayor Earl Trapp. While he has several injuries to show, late this […]
Belize’s two cities and seven towns have been clamoring for greater autonomy. Belize City, under Darrell Bradley’s leadership, led the way with the installment of the twenty-million dollar municipal bond to fix hundreds of streets. Last year, the government amended legislation giving towns like San Ignacio and Santa Elena the ability to borrow and obtain […]
Since 2006, the United Democratic Party has, with few exceptions, been the political party in control of both central and municipal governments. The Opposition People’s United Party has held on to a few strongholds like Orange Walk Town but constantly butted heads with the governing party. But so confident are the United Democratic Party of […]
The homestretch of the municipal elections race has arrived. As the calendar turns to February, the ruling United Democratic Party is first off the mark with its production of promises and plans should it be voted in for another three-year term. Some believe that the U.D.P. in the Old Capital has little left to accomplish […]
