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PUP’s Lost Ground In Epic Fashion
posted (March 6, 2015)
Last night we gave you the broad outline of the results for the 2015 town board election - it was basically 62 to 5 in favour of the UDP - with the ruling party in full control of eight of nine municipalities across the country. It's a major letdown for the PUP which had hoped to gain ground in this election, but instead lost two of the three towns it did control before Wednesday's election.

But tonight the enormity of the defeat is just coming into full focus now that the Elections and Boundaries Department has released the official figures.

It shows the UDP not only winning but making major gains in every single town and city. That figure was highest in Belmopan where the UDP gained sixteen percentage points compared to the 2012 election. The UDP mayoral candidate, Khalid Belisle won by almost 1,500 votes, besting his opponent at a rate of almost two to one. In 2012, the UDP council was split and garnered only 42% of the vote - this time it's 59% in the capital city. And in a three party race, the PUP got only 28% of the total vote.

The UDP had its second greatest gain in popularity in Punta Gorda where it increased its popularity by 15.8%. In 2012, the UDP lost that council, garnering only 40% of the vote; this time they got 56%. The outgoing PUP Mayor Anthony Fuentes got a dismal 27% of the vote, and the new mayor Fern Guttierez beat him at a rate of greater than two to one. Wil Maheia's PNP finished close to the PUP figures in a respectable third place.

In Dangriga, the UDP had its third largest gain - another town council which it lost in 2012 but now controls with a commanding majority. There was a 644 vote swing against the PUP and the UDP got 60% of the popular vote. New mayor Francis Humphreys beat his opponent by over 500 votes.

San Ignacio, which is a long-time UDP stronghold became even more so. Former Mayor John August got 53% of the votes in 2012, but his replacement Earl Trapp increased that to 64%. He beat his PUP opponent by almost two thousand votes as the PUP saw its percentage of the vote plummet from 47% to 36%.

In San Pedro - which was seen as a battleground - Mayor Danny Guerrero increased his margin from 134 votes in 2012 to 655 over his PUP opponent. The PUP's hold on the electorate went down almost 5% in this town.

In Benque Viejo - another long time UDP stronghold - the UDP made the most modest gains, increasing its dominance from 61 to 65% - and the new mayor Heraldo Rancharan, got 767 more votes than his opponent.

Orange Walk, is the only town which the PUP held unto - but the party lost significantly in the popular vote. Not only did two UDP councilors get in, but Mayor Kevin Bernard's margin of victory plummeted from a dominant 642 votes in 2012 to just 64 votes in 2015. Overall, the PUP's popularity in Sugar City went from 55% to 51%, and the UDP went up from 45 to 49%.

In Corozal, where UDP Mayor Hilberto Campos won what may be a historic fourth term, the UDP saw its most modest increase in popularity - at only 1.4%. In 2012 the party got 51% of the vote and in 2015 is got 53% of the vote. Mayor Campos saw his margin of victory slip slightly from 383 to 300. He is the only incumbent UDP mayor to have his margin decreased; it increased for all other mayor's seeking re-eleciton.

And that brings us last to Belize City - where Darrell Bradley also increased his margin of victory - beating his opponent Yolanda Schakron at a rate of almost two to one - more than five thousand votes. The Belize City result is worthy of special attention - because, being in the media center - it got so much attention during the campaign. Overall, the UDP slate not only gained popularity since 2012 - but did better than in 2009 when the UDP was just elected. More significantly, with 61% of the vote, the UDP slate fared as well as the Zenaida Moya slate from 2006 - when the then Musa Administration was at the height of its popularity and facing heavy street protests.

Overall, such a dominant result coming three years after the UDP almost lost general elections, suggests - as we've been saying - that the pendulum of political fortune is swinging in the wrong direction - in favor of the incumbent, and against the PUP. In a release yesterday the PUP blamed the outcome on quote, "the indiscriminate and wholesale use of Petrocaribe money…to fund vote-buying..."

For the historical record, we should note that in 2008, the PUP spent, according to the Auditor General's office, 12.3 million dollars -from a Venezuelan grant in 6 weeks before the general election - and then went on to suffer a historic loss at the polls.

This is the first time in memory that an incumbent administration has increased its margins in every single town and city.

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