Ring!...Ring!...Ring! AquaBoy answers the phone to find his brother-in-law on the other end. The brother-in-law is a candidate for the Opposition party in the upcoming BELIZE RURAL CENTRAL Division which is being contested by as many as 4 candidates.
By the name of the Division, you understand that he lives in a Rural Village, the name is Lord's Bank and close to a beautiful river. This small villages in the area have one bus company which services these people to and from Belize City where most of them find work.
AquaBoy: "How is the campaign going over there in Rural Central.."
Aspirant: "The Bus Company is very very upset"
AquaBoy: "What does that have to do with your campaign"
Aspirant: "The political aspirants are now rushing to pick up people at the bus stop and road sides in the mornings to give them free passage to the city. Of course the aspirant uses the opportunity of trapped constituents in his car over the 20 minute ride to plug in a little campaign.
The Bus Company fears they will be Out-of-Business before the next National Election if this continues...."
Political time is here again when aspirants suddenly become very friendly and courteous, trying to win over our vote. In these preliminary elections gearing up towards the big National Election, it is not uncommon that an acquaintance who never gave you much thought or attention all the years, is now suddenly a different person.
These days, it's the Opposition PUP party candidates, the sea of Blue T-Shirts you see swarming the neighborhoods. In our Division BELIZE RURAL NORTH, a fiercly battled campaign between two candidates is underway. The end result, to select the Candidate for the Area to contest in the upcoming General Elections.
The two main players (a freshman and an ex Minister) is heating up for the election on June 7th.
The freshman is an upstart and has already launched an aggressive campaign but time will tell if he can beat the popular Female candidate.
There is a third candidate & fourth candidate from Ambergris, although I really didn't even know one existed in this race until I browsed the Caye Caulker Message Board and saw this aspirant post that he is a candidate. I almost did not mention him at all since the race from my perspective seems to be between only two. He was asking thru the message board medium, for the locals of Caye Caulker to tell him what the problems were that we faced. From what I saw, not many people bothered to answer since I believe, they prefer to meet and talk to their candidates in person to get a sense or feel of that person before they start listing off the problems we face to someone who probably can't do a damn thing about it anyway.
The fourth aspirant is a person who was once the Mayor of San Pedro town and since I don't live on that island, I couldn't tell you if he was a good one.
Seduction & Betrayal are a given in politics - both with the candidates and the electorate. Everybody makes promisies and promises......the candidate and the voters. New & past aspirants from Ambergris Caye, some who previously had a locked control on the growing number of voters on Caye Caulker with their popularity, now find some previous 'die hard' supporters aligning themselves with the new candidate. The reason for the new divide is that some people are proud to support one from their own village. For Caye Caulker, this is history in the making as the current aspirant is the first to have the gusto to go for the gold. As difficult as the uphill struggle will be for him, it is still a barrier that he has now broken by being willing to take up the challenge.
Some aspirants walk around, during this preliminary campaign, as if they are already an elected official shaking hands, quieting screaming babies and showing up at all funerals, sports or community activity, I suppose to show that he or she, can be a Statesperson.
Common folks can dream big and hope to reach a Ministerial position without even having to test their popularity within their Village or towns first as a Chairman or other lower position, and still enter this preliminary contest and if by incident should win, and on a winning party team, whola!....Minister.
Some candidates now entering the 'big league' tried at the local level in their small village and were not elected.
When it comes to the National Election, well the constituency extends to areas where people don't really know the candidate and are just now hearing about the person. In our case, the same Division includes two seperate islands. This grey area is where a freshman candidate, with all the charisma he-she can muster, stands a chance to convince people on the other island, they are not what some people in their village might say they are and vice versa, new areas out of our village might not also know the candidates strong points.
In order to by-pass the small village elections in favor of the preliminaries to the big ticket, all you have to do is put your machinery in place (Committees) and dive head first into the pool of politics with all the charisma, promises and blue notes you one can muster up. Anybody that says raw cash handed out as bribes, boating people in from other areas etc. doesn't happen, would not be telling the whole truth, in my opinion.
Never has there been a candidate from Caye Caulker contesting this position before until now. Most of the candidates in the past, have been from mainland Belize, a few lawyers and businessmen and more recently, the representatives elected have been islanders from Ambergris Caye.
The reason this is important is that the "Big Island" of Ambergris Caye -due to their large number of voters as opposed to Caye Caulker with a much smaller number - tend to vote for one of their own, preferring to be locally governed by someone they know on a personal level & see every day. One who they believe will understand the issues that plague their island better than someone who does not live there.
The Area Representative of the ruling party usually is not contested to represent his party in the next election unless the Area Representative chooses not to run again, leaving the position open to new candidates.
While a Caye Caulker candidate might not understand, in this preliminary stage of the game, the exact issues that plague our much bigger neighbor island; the issues I believe, are similar to ours, just on a larger scale.
Both islands hold Tourism as the number one income earner and preserving that industry with an organized 10 year Master Plan for each island would be a good start.
From rumours - during the meeting at the Center Hall earlier this month, an antagonist who invariably shows up at every political meeting, loud and boisterous, opinionated and crass, plays a vital role in politics.
The Antagonist role is bring to light, points we might want to consider before casting our ballot. The antagonist will no doubt rise and ask a blunt, unforgiving question.
ANTAGONIST: "How are you going to have a known (insert negative comment here) represent your party"
Then another member of the same party, one sitting behind the desk up front on the newly elected committee, starts yelling at the antagonist in front of the crowd, presumably to divert from the question.
Committee Member: "Bway, Shut your Pussy Mouth, SHUT IT you hear or I will shut it for you!"
The Joy of Politics in Belize.
By the name of the Division, you understand that he lives in a Rural Village, the name is Lord's Bank and close to a beautiful river. This small villages in the area have one bus company which services these people to and from Belize City where most of them find work.
AquaBoy: "How is the campaign going over there in Rural Central.."
Aspirant: "The Bus Company is very very upset"
AquaBoy: "What does that have to do with your campaign"
Aspirant: "The political aspirants are now rushing to pick up people at the bus stop and road sides in the mornings to give them free passage to the city. Of course the aspirant uses the opportunity of trapped constituents in his car over the 20 minute ride to plug in a little campaign.
The Bus Company fears they will be Out-of-Business before the next National Election if this continues...."
Political time is here again when aspirants suddenly become very friendly and courteous, trying to win over our vote. In these preliminary elections gearing up towards the big National Election, it is not uncommon that an acquaintance who never gave you much thought or attention all the years, is now suddenly a different person.
These days, it's the Opposition PUP party candidates, the sea of Blue T-Shirts you see swarming the neighborhoods. In our Division BELIZE RURAL NORTH, a fiercly battled campaign between two candidates is underway. The end result, to select the Candidate for the Area to contest in the upcoming General Elections.
The two main players (a freshman and an ex Minister) is heating up for the election on June 7th.
The freshman is an upstart and has already launched an aggressive campaign but time will tell if he can beat the popular Female candidate.
There is a third candidate & fourth candidate from Ambergris, although I really didn't even know one existed in this race until I browsed the Caye Caulker Message Board and saw this aspirant post that he is a candidate. I almost did not mention him at all since the race from my perspective seems to be between only two. He was asking thru the message board medium, for the locals of Caye Caulker to tell him what the problems were that we faced. From what I saw, not many people bothered to answer since I believe, they prefer to meet and talk to their candidates in person to get a sense or feel of that person before they start listing off the problems we face to someone who probably can't do a damn thing about it anyway.
The fourth aspirant is a person who was once the Mayor of San Pedro town and since I don't live on that island, I couldn't tell you if he was a good one.
Seduction & Betrayal are a given in politics - both with the candidates and the electorate. Everybody makes promisies and promises......the candidate and the voters. New & past aspirants from Ambergris Caye, some who previously had a locked control on the growing number of voters on Caye Caulker with their popularity, now find some previous 'die hard' supporters aligning themselves with the new candidate. The reason for the new divide is that some people are proud to support one from their own village. For Caye Caulker, this is history in the making as the current aspirant is the first to have the gusto to go for the gold. As difficult as the uphill struggle will be for him, it is still a barrier that he has now broken by being willing to take up the challenge.
Some aspirants walk around, during this preliminary campaign, as if they are already an elected official shaking hands, quieting screaming babies and showing up at all funerals, sports or community activity, I suppose to show that he or she, can be a Statesperson.
Common folks can dream big and hope to reach a Ministerial position without even having to test their popularity within their Village or towns first as a Chairman or other lower position, and still enter this preliminary contest and if by incident should win, and on a winning party team, whola!....Minister.
Some candidates now entering the 'big league' tried at the local level in their small village and were not elected.
When it comes to the National Election, well the constituency extends to areas where people don't really know the candidate and are just now hearing about the person. In our case, the same Division includes two seperate islands. This grey area is where a freshman candidate, with all the charisma he-she can muster, stands a chance to convince people on the other island, they are not what some people in their village might say they are and vice versa, new areas out of our village might not also know the candidates strong points.
In order to by-pass the small village elections in favor of the preliminaries to the big ticket, all you have to do is put your machinery in place (Committees) and dive head first into the pool of politics with all the charisma, promises and blue notes you one can muster up. Anybody that says raw cash handed out as bribes, boating people in from other areas etc. doesn't happen, would not be telling the whole truth, in my opinion.
Never has there been a candidate from Caye Caulker contesting this position before until now. Most of the candidates in the past, have been from mainland Belize, a few lawyers and businessmen and more recently, the representatives elected have been islanders from Ambergris Caye.
The reason this is important is that the "Big Island" of Ambergris Caye -due to their large number of voters as opposed to Caye Caulker with a much smaller number - tend to vote for one of their own, preferring to be locally governed by someone they know on a personal level & see every day. One who they believe will understand the issues that plague their island better than someone who does not live there.
The Area Representative of the ruling party usually is not contested to represent his party in the next election unless the Area Representative chooses not to run again, leaving the position open to new candidates.
While a Caye Caulker candidate might not understand, in this preliminary stage of the game, the exact issues that plague our much bigger neighbor island; the issues I believe, are similar to ours, just on a larger scale.
Both islands hold Tourism as the number one income earner and preserving that industry with an organized 10 year Master Plan for each island would be a good start.
From rumours - during the meeting at the Center Hall earlier this month, an antagonist who invariably shows up at every political meeting, loud and boisterous, opinionated and crass, plays a vital role in politics.
The Antagonist role is bring to light, points we might want to consider before casting our ballot. The antagonist will no doubt rise and ask a blunt, unforgiving question.
ANTAGONIST: "How are you going to have a known (insert negative comment here) represent your party"
Then another member of the same party, one sitting behind the desk up front on the newly elected committee, starts yelling at the antagonist in front of the crowd, presumably to divert from the question.
Committee Member: "Bway, Shut your Pussy Mouth, SHUT IT you hear or I will shut it for you!"
The Joy of Politics in Belize.
Comments