In more political news, as they have been ever since the first village council election results, tonight the two major parties are claiming victory now that the polls have closed. In a press release from the People’s United Party Secretariat, they have the clear majority having won council races in one hundred and three villages. […]
After a break for Easter, Village Council elections were back on the menu this Sunday in forty-two rural locations. This time around, the People’s United Party claims twenty-two wins, gives fourteen to the U.D.P., and lists four as won by independents. According to the P.U.P., its big victories were in the Belize District where they […]
The Mayors Association of Belize has a new president. According to a press release issued today, Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya will replace outgoing president Mayor Elsa Paz of San Pedro. Other members of the executive include Benque Viejo Mayor Marconi Sosa as vice president, Ravell Gonzalez of Orange Walk as secretary, and San Ignacio/Santa […]
The government of the People’s United Party is not the only political entity with a hotfoot in Toledo. According to a press release from the United Democratic Party’s Toledo East constituency, its own U.D.P. councillor, Wil Galvez, is being asked to resign his seat on the Punta Gorda Town Council. His crime? Apparently he is […]
Week three of the nationwide balloting for village councils is now history and to absolutely nobody’s surprise, the major political parties once again have different interpretations of the results. According to a press release from the United Democratic Party, they won twenty-one of the thirty-eight villages outright and say that an additional four villages in […]
Still on the subject of politics, this weekend village council elections will continue countrywide. But as News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports, efforts by both the United Democratic Party and the People’s United Party have pushed one race into the national spotlight. Janelle Chanona, Reporting On Sunday April first, more than four thousand people living between […]
The fracas in the Orange Walk district during the election of the Trial Farm Village Council has highlighted the fact that Belize’s two mass parties are both taking very seriously an electoral event that in the past barely made a blip on the political radar. As we’ve reported, results so far have proved confusing as […]
Round two of the village council elections were held on Sunday in fifty-six more villages across the country. And just as they did the last time around, this week both political parties are claiming victory. The United Democratic Party has their party winning in thirty villages, with ten independents running successful campaigns, leaving the People’s […]
Normally meetings of the Senate do not make headlines, but tonight a number of appointed legislators are claiming they were robbed of their right to debate the 2007-2008 Budget. This afternoon, our canvass of Government, Private Sector, and Opposition senators revealed that Leader of Government Business Richard Dickie Bradley did present the motion properly but […]
The results of the latest public opinion poll conducted by the University of Belize have created quite a stir on the local political scene. On one hand the United Democratic Party has endorsed the survey which produced statistics largely in their favour. But members of the People’s United Party have dismissed the facts and figures […]
The controversy over exactly who won the first set of Village Council Elections held on March eighteenth remains anything but settled as both major political parties continue to claim victory. According to the United Democratic Party, information from the rural areas indicates that U.D.P. candidates won a majority of seats in thirty-four villages, the P.U.P. […]
The results of a recent public opinion poll, mirroring those conducted over the last few years, are suggesting that Belizeans countrywide are dissatisfied with the Musa administration. The survey “Peoples Perception of Election 2008” was the brainchild of former director of research and present registrar at the University of Belize, Dr. Roy Young, but the […]
On Sunday, residents in forty-seven villages countrywide went to the polls to elect a chairperson and seven councillors. And while the party lines in village elections can sometimes be blurred, in a press release from its secretariat, the United Democratic Party is claiming the lion’s share of the slates, thirty-four in fact, as victories for […]
But the bill to approve the Placencia road project did not pass without fuss as Area Representative for the Collet constituency Patrick Faber and Speaker of the House Elizabeth Zabaneh got into heated exchange when Faber rose on a point of order during a presentation by Caribbean Shores representative Jose Coye. Jose Coye, Area Rep., […]
As he had promised on our newscast on Thursday night, this morning Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow questioned Minister of Immigration Ralph Fonseca on the Cal controversy. Following Barrow’s petitions for changes in the system of issuing and withdrawing diplomatic status, Fonseca maintained that new measures have already been put in place. Ralph Fonseca, […]
And while the presentation of the Musa administration’s budget will be the highlight of tomorrow’s House meeting, Dean Barrow says on the adjournment he’ll call for a financial investigation of Moises Cal by local financial and law enforcement authorities. Dean Barrow “The Belize Police Department and the Financial Intelligence Unit should indicate that they are […]
Almost two weeks after former Ambassador Moises Cal was stopped by Panamanian customs officials for trying to enter that country with unusually large amounts of cash it appears that he will escape criminal prosecution in both Panama and Belize. As previously reported, the two countries do not have an extradition treaty and there has been […]
Since January, three different third parties have announced their plans to contest general elections in 2008. This week People’s United Party Chairman Francis Fonseca gave his take on the recent developments on the local political scene. Francis Fonseca, P.U.P. Chairman “I think it is new territory for all of us. It is new territory for […]
With the credibility of the P.U.P. at an all time low and the opposition U.D.P. acting like a government in waiting, it seems that the urge to form a third, fourth and even fifth party is proving irresistible to would-be politicians from every corner of the nation. Today, on the heels of the V.I.P. and […]
Moises Cal, the man who made news over the weekend by mysteriously quitting as the P.U.P. candidate in the Belmopan constituency, appears to have problems far bigger than politics. In an interview today with Foreign Ministry C.E.O. Amalia Mai, the government basically confirmed that the former senior diplomat–not to mention ruling party standard bearer–is under […]
The People’s United Party’s effort to choose a candidate in the newly created Belmopan constituency was always something of a cat and mouse game, but an announcement over the weekend makes it look more like a case of “Where’s Waldo?” When the establishment of the new division was announced a few years back it looked […]
And speaking of politics, on Sunday in the village of San Antonio, Toledo, the People’s National Party made its debut. Toledo East and West candidates, Wil Maheia and Dionicio Choc made their inaugural entrance and by all accounts, a good time was had by all. As has become the norm for third parties–not to mention […]
Belize City has a new deputy mayor. He is councillor Anthony Michael. According to a City Council release, the law provides that the council shall elect a deputy mayor from its members each year following its initial election to office. That year ends March first, which is the effective date of Michael’s term. It is […]
In Belize’s young political history, third parties and independent candidates have never had electoral success in national elections. But that fact is not deterring a growing list of hopefuls who are hoping to break that tradition in 2008. The latest entrant to test the third party waters is calling itself the People’s National Party and […]
The Prime Minister’s office has also released a letter sent yesterday to Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya confirming the city’s one U.S. dollar cut of the cruise ship head tax. Although the letter assured Moya that the new subvention takes effect on February first, it does not address the issue of the three hundred and […]
