This coming week will mark the third round of village council elections, in which communities gather to elect one chairman and six councilors to manage their affairs for a term of three years. Although the process has just gotten underway, the UDP's mediocre propagandists have been spinning their wheels playing political games and claiming that their party now controls a majority of the villages in which elections have been held so far. But rather than presenting a picture of the real truth, the desperation shown by the UDP in promoting an image of total control reveals that after only two years in office, something has gone totally awry.
Two week into the 2010 Village Council elections and already a trend is beginning to emerge. With 48 villages already completed it is clear that despite the dominance that the United Democratic Party showed two years ago in the General Elections, the popularity of the elected officials have waned.
The statistics provided by the UDP in their weekly political rag are a complete fabrication, designed to mask the dismal truth being revealed by the election results so far. And that truth is that the UDP from one corner of this nation to the other has become the most despised and scorned entity in this nation. Two years of a higher cost of living, increasing poverty, higher taxes, victimization, corruption, neglect and incompetence have come at a high cost to the UDP.
In the south a backlash against the Hon. Melvin Hulse, the area representative in the Stann Creek West Division has resulted in the UDP losing a number of key villages. Critical among these is Independence, one of the largest communities involved in these elections. Three other villages which went completely against Hulse and the UDP are Maya Mopan, Placencia and Hopkins. The UDP, in control after 2007, was kicked out of these three communities in convincing fashion.
In Orange Walk North, where Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega is the representative, elections have resulted in the UDP winning by far smaller margins that they did just two years ago. In Nuevo San Juan, which returned a PUP slate last week, voters spoke of the neglect that villagers felt. Many who spoke on condition of anonymity said that issues that influenced their decision to vote against the UDP included victimization, the taking away of people's lands and the disrespect shown by area representatives for the village leaders.
Some voters in village communities complained about the many unfulfilled promises that so many of these UDP councils made. In areas like Guinea Grass, villagers complained about the condition of the village cemetery, which has been kept in disrepair.
Another issue which is dominating the debate in villages across the country is the matter of village expansion. With so little development in the villages, many of the young men and women leave the village for the urban areas seeking jobs and opportunity.
In some of the UDP strongholds and in communities considered UDP villages, many candidates are opting to run independent in fear running as a UDP would be equal to a defeat. In Placencia, a village historically UDP, last Sunday's election resulted in an independent slate winning. In Toledo in Big Falls, a similar situation occurred. In Caye Caulker, the UDP slate was discarded for an independent slate. Villagers who were once considered to be strong supporters of the United Democratic are abandoning the red and white flags and are running under alternate colours.
At a village meeting in Guinea Grass, PUP supporters proudly endorsed a PUP slate for the May 16 elections. During their village meeting villagers excitedly embraced their slate and expressed confidence in the PUP. Guinea Grass is known to be a strong UDP village and the home of the UDP representative Mark Pech.
Speaker after speaker expressed their dissatisfaction with the way development in the village had progressed. One villager stated how happy people in the village had been to have one of their own as a representative in the House, only to now be disappointed in Pech, whose only performance in the House is to occasionally sit in the Speaker's chair. After two years as area representative, Pech has not been able to bring any significant development to the village and to Orange Walk South.
On Sunday some 46 villages will be having elections all across the nation. Many of these villages are currently under the management of UDP Village Councils. If the trend continues, by the time the sun sets on Sunday, many of these will change hands and the message for the UDP will be clear. The message is that after two years, Belizeans are fed up with the UDP and ready to embrace change.
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Source: The Belize Times
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