So, just like that…the 2015 general elections are history. The all consuming event saw millions of dollars spent, thousands of signs plastered all across the country, hundreds of campaign workers brought into harness, dozens of hours of advertising…all for the election of just 29 men and two women. Tonight Jules Vasquez looks at their margins of victory compared to the last election:..
Jules Vasquez reporting
We start off in the North with Corozal Bay: the UDP's Pablo Marin beat out the PUP's Gregorio "Papas" Garcia by 146 votes - almost identical to the 148 votes he beat him by in 2012.
In Corozal North UDP Hugo Patt won that seat by 493 votes, better than the 209 he won by in 2012. Moving on to Corozal South East the PUP's Florencio Marin Jr. beat Evan Cowo by 164 votes - a sharp dip in that PUP stronghold, because in 2012, Marin won by 412 votes. In Corozal South West UDP's Dr. Angel Campos unseated the PUP Area representative Ramiro Ramirez by a margin of 219 votes - in the last election Campos ran as an independent and the UDP lost by thirty three votes.
In Orange Walk Central - one of the PUP's safest seats - Johnny Briceno got only 50.5% of the vote, but beat out his UDP opponent by over 600 votes. The difference maker here was former UDP Mayor Phillip De la Fuente who got 493 votes for the BPP.
In Orange Walk North, UDP Gaspar "Gapi" Vega beat Ramon "Munchi" Cerventes by 489 votes - but again saw his popularity with voters dip: he won by 1239 votes here in 2012.
In Orange Walk South PUP incumbent Jose Mai won by only 62 votes -his margin was reduced by 300 votes. In Orange Walk East, newcomer for the UDP Elodio Aragon won easily by 547 votes - the last time the PUP won this area by 265 votes.
In Belize Rural North, the UDP's Edmond Castro won by 400 votes - less than the 515 he had in 2012. Beverly Castillo won by 58 votes in Central - unseating Dolores Baldermaos Garcia who had won by 204 votes. In Rural South, the UDP's Manuel Junior Heredia won by 1132 votes - almost three times his 453 vote margin in 2012.
In Belize City, Francis Fonseca won by his largest margin ever, 418 votes - much better than the 150 he won by in 2012. In Caribbean Shores, Kareem Musa won by 56 votes - reversing the 676 vote margin the UDP had in 2012. In Fort George, Said Musa won by over 700 votes, better than the 487 he won by in 2012. And In Lake Independence, Cordel Hyde beat Mark King by one shy of two thousand votes. Hyde got 71% of the vote for the PUP - the highest percentage for any PUP.
The candidate with the highest percentage for the UDP - also had the highest percentage for the country: Dean Barrow got 78% of the vote beating Anthony Sylvester by 1549 votes. Michael Finnegan was right behind him in the Mesopotamia division, by over a thousand votes, securing 77% of the vote. Patrick Faber was the UDP's other Southside winner with a margin of more than a thousand votes, better than the 889 votes he won by in 2012.
But in the UDP's other southside stronghold in Port Loyola, Anthony Martinez only won by 77 votes, after winning by 800 votes in 2012:
Jules Vasquez
"Mr. Gilroy Usher has reduced the margin from over a thousand to five hundred and change to seventy-seven. So it looks like the PUP are making a rise in that division. Remember it swung against Dolores Balderamos Garcia, 20% in one election cycle."
Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez, Area Rep. - Port Loyola
"It doesn't really matter sir. Its 4 times I won there - 1,2,3,4 and no guess. This is not boledo and this is not lotto. This is what you put in, you get out. And I put in the most and I got out the most."
Jules Vasquez
"You have some people who are saying if Murphy McLauren didn't get 92 votes, maybe Usher might have won."
Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez, Area Rep. - Port Loyola
"Let me tell you something; if New York was at big bridge, a lot of us would be in New York every day. So if is a good conjunction. It just like how people worry about percentage and so. Percentage is just part of a number. Our democracy speaks to who gets the most wins."
Wilfred Elrington also did his work - winning by 78 votes whereas he won by 82 votes in 2012. In Albert, Tracey Taegar won by 342 votes, better than the 227 than the UDP won by in 2012.
Moving to the west Erwin Contreras won by 1,286 votes, slightly down from the 1345 he won by in 2012. In Cayo Central, Omar Figueroa, won by 159 votes, losing 1,177 votes since his January bye-election. In Cayo Central Rene Montero gained ground, beating Dan Silva by 263 votes, after he won by only 44 in the last election. In Cayo Northeast, the PUP's Landy Habet won that area by 72 votes, after losing by 17 votes in 2012. In Cayo South, Julius Espat beat Ralph Huang by 1,116 votes, slightly more than the 942 he won by in 2012. In Belmopan, John Saldivar beat Patrick Andrews by 757 votes, increasing his margin since 2012, by 539 votes - but he expected to win by much more and that may be why he was so emotional:
Hon. John Saldivar, Area Rep. - Belmopan
"I feel the love of my people. That's all that I can say. My people believe in me and tonight is the result. That's all I can say. Thank you. Look I am happy to continue to serve my people. They have elected me to serve and I am happy to do that. Thank you. Thank you Jesus."
And there were probably also tears In Stann Creek West, where Rodwell Ferguson squeaked by with a margin of only 8 votes, down sharply from the 574 votes he won by in 2012. In Toledo East, Mike Espat won by 200 votes, less than the 330 he won by in 2012. In Toledo West Oscar Requena held unto his huge margin, winning by 1380 votes, slightly more than he did in 2012, when he won by 1,307.
In Dangriga, Frank Pawpa Mena won by 336 votes, about three hundred fewer than his 638 vote margin in the July bye-election.
The overall result sees the PUP losing ground compared to 2012, with only 12 representatives to the UDP's 19. The UDP is bolstered by three first time representatives - and their winners are spread across a greater area of the country, rather than just concentrated in the city.
In the end, 142 thousand, 881 persons voted, which is a 72% turnout, which is in line with the 72% which came out in 2012.
Overall, the PUP got 67 thousand votes, or 47%, while the UDP got 71 thousand votes or 50.01 percent. The BPP got 2,336 votes, or 1.63%.