Belize goes to the polls today
https://www.facebook.com/caricom.org/photos/a.563198893792354.1073741831.548394111939499/747253788720196/?type=3&theater
BELMOPAN, Belize, Nov 4, CMC – More than 190,000 voters are electing a new government here on Wednesday with the Belize Council of Churches (BCC) urging them to “put the interest of the country above and beyond their own self interest”.
The 393 polling stations opened at 7.00 AM (local time) and will close 11 hours later. The Elections and Boundaries Department said that 196, 587 persons are eligible to cast ballots and the first preliminary results could be known at least five hours after the polls close.
The elections are being observed by teams from the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the United States Embassy here.
In a statement, the BCC, which called a news conference on Tuesday to dismiss media reports that it had endorsed the PUP, said it was encouraging “all the parties involved in this election, the political parties, the Elections and Boundaries Commission, and the voters to put the interest of the country above and beyond their own self-interest and allow the electoral process to be fair, peaceful and objective”.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who called the elections nearly two years ahead of the constitutional deadline, is leading his United Democratic Party (UDP) as it seeks a third consecutive term in office. But he faces a challenge from the main opposition People’s United Party (PUP) that won 14 seats in the last general election.
In last minute appeals to the electorate, both Prime Minister Barrow and PUP leader Francis Fonseca urged voters to give them the nod in running the affairs of this Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country over the next five years.
“No one can deny the achievements we have made, the advances we have recorded. They are without precedent in the history of this land, and the transformation for which we have become known is both deep and wide, both social and infrastructural,” Barrow said.
He said his administration’s public works programme “has meant thousands of new jobs, massive rural and urban renewal and vast physical and material uplift.
“Our boost and food pantry safety net has resulted in a dramatically less pressured and more equal society. We have tamed the runaway public debt, we have increased government spending, we have delivered the goods and services…,” he added.
But Fonseca said that a vote for the PUP “is a vote for jobs, lower taxes and more money in your pockets. A vote for the PUP is a vote for free education from pre-school to sixth form.
“A vote for the PUP is a vote for the 13th Senator, a strengthened Integrity Commission and a restructured Public Accounts Committee,” he said, adding that the PUP in office would implement a national health insurance scheme and vote against moving towards the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in dealing with theborder dispute with Guatemala.
“ After eight years of one man rule, eight years of nepotism and corruption, eight years of growing poverty, inequality, massive debt, senseless crime and violence, eight years of failure to protect and defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Belize needs a change, a new beginning, a fresh start, a new team of leaders,” Fonseca told voters.