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Reporter
"I heard you have the keys to the kingdom as they say. With the endorsement from the current king."

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"What kingdom and what king?"

Reporter
"The kingdom of Port Loyola, led by the king Anthony Boots Martinez."

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"If I could just address that comment. Clearly, the more mischievous of us will interpret that a certain way, but that's not the correct way to interpret it. Everybody who knows Boots knows that Boots is the consummate servant of his people. He didn't mean it like he is some luring over some peasants. That's not what he was trying to say. But to be fair Boots Martinez, in my view, has been disrespected and when you're disrespected you become emotional and all I think he was trying to say is that, come on, the people of Port Loyola elected him in a general election. What happens on November 4th doesn't change that at all. All that will happen on November 4th is that the U.D.P. will choose who will represent the Port for the U.D.P. in an election when the minister steps down. That's all it is, it's no more than that,"

Reporter
"If you win on Sunday when do you declare your candidacy for leadership?"

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"What?"

Reporter
"Mr. Martinez said that he is supporting you partly because he sees you as a future leader of the UDP and a future prime minister."

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"Boots Martinez, as his freedom to do, has expressed a choice, a preference. He can expressed who he will support or who he would like to see occupy any position within the UDP. Everybody knows that constitutionality the prime minister is leaving and so there would naturally be talk of who would be the new leader. Who that is or who that won't be is up to the delegates of the party and Boots Martinez is a super delegate, if you will, and he has the right to express who he would like to see occupy that position. I don't think it was anything more than that."

Reporter
"You have ambitions for it Mike."

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"I have ambition to win November 4th, 2018 and I hope I can edge out AC Castillo at the polls on Sunday."

Reporter
"Are you saying it never crossed your mind?"

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"I take things one at a time. It has crossed my mind to own a piece of land in Caye Caulker to retire when I am 75 years old as well, but we are not there yet. We are here at Sunday and that's all I am focusing on."

Reporter
"The perception is that in order to win, you will have to spend some money, Mr. Martinez will have to spend some money. I know you've rejected the cynical notion that people are not for sale, but election needs money to mobilize legitimately. What will be your advantage on convention day?"

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"My Advantage hopefully will be that: 1) I have the full support of the current area representative Boots Martinez. His people has supported him in 4 straight general elections."

Reporter
"By diminishing margins rapidly."

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Candidate, Port Loyola
"If you talk about that then I can say well Francis Fonseca was so lucky to edge my out by 16. Come on, if you win by 1 or you win by a million. It doesn't matter. Winning is winning and so he has won. He is the area representative and nobody knows that division better than Boots Martinez. I believe that my edge is that he will be in my corner."

The convention will be on Sunday. Later this week, we'll talk to the other aspirants Dean Samuels and AC Shane Castillo.



PUP Usher Keeping Profile Up In Port

And while the UDP has it "turnt - up" in the Port right now, the PUP's standard bearer in the division is also clamoring for some attention.

Today he teamed up the Belize City Council to clean up Port Loyola streets. It is an annual campaign and we dropped by to find out why it is important to keep it going.

Gilroy Usher, PUP, Standard Bearer
"Well the cleanup campaign is necessary to promote civic pride in the community because while it is the city council that is charged with the responsibility for cleaning the neighborhood, we as citizens have to put interest in cleaning our neighborhood ourselves too, the city council can't do everything, they try but they can't be everywhere, so that is why we make our cleanup campaign an annual event where we take a strategic area in the division and come out and clean it up."

Aisha Gentle, Councillor "The type of assistance we are providing is our backhoe, our pickup to pick up the garbage, we don't leave it on the side so it goes back in the drain, we have two of our cutters out here to help because if you notice some of the stuff are not the regular grass, we need more man power so at the end of the day we are just rendering that basic assistance that we would render in any community at any given time."

But beyond civic pride, naturally, Usher hopes to continue building on his support in a division where he has lost twice. He will face whoever wins the UDP convention - and they will have some momentum. But Usher says it doesn't faze him and he is ready to take the UDP candidate down.

Gilroy Usher, PUP, Standard Bearer, Port Loyola
"Politics is an ongoing thing, you campaign throughout the time like for example, after this clean-up campaign we will be dealing with a beautification campaign in the month of November and then we will be dealing with our annual Christmas program that we have when we give out lemonade in the division so whether there is politics or no politics we always try our best to reach out to the residents of the neighborhood."

"In terms of support I am proud of the support I have in Port Loyola because my support has been steadily on the increase, the 2012 election I think I lost by 800 votes, I was a novice in politics at the time but at the last general elections I narrowly lost by 73 votes so my support has been gradually building in the Port Loyola area and I am confident that with the support of the people and my continued hard work in the division whenever the polls are called again, I will be the next area representative for Port because the people want betterment and change I represent in the area."

"And I am prepared for whoever is the UDP standard bearer for Port Loyola."



DOE Needs to Re-Centralize?

Last week we reported extensively on the stop order which the Department of the Environment took out against developer Haisam Diab, who is building a Pizza parlour on the seafront. Today we got a chance to ask the Minister of State in the Ministry of the Environment, Omar Figueroa about it. Now, granted he was out of the country on official business last week - but Figueroa said there's something generally wrong with the system of reporting to him:..

Will Gas Station Be Built Across From Princess?

And while the DOE has put the brakes on the seafront pizza parlour, it approved a gas station not far away - right across from the Princess where Putt Putt used to be. The last city council also approved it. But the Fire Department expressed its reservations - and, right now, that and a lack of buy in front the community are the only things stopping that project. Deputy Mayor Oscar Arnold told us more:..

Oscar Arnold, Deputy Mayor
"One of the principals of the project visited us and he laid out the plan for us on the table. We had a couple of meetings with him and he was doing some consultations with the residents in the area. We leanrt of the approval a little bit later on after the documents came to the fore. However there was a groudwell of support of the residents in that area that did not want it. They were suporting the fact that the fire department had quite a bit of problems with that project."

Reporter
"Whats the final word on it?"

Oscar Arnold, Deputy Mayor
"The final meeting we had with the principal was that he had to get the buy-in and true consultations from the resident of the area, because of individual hazards that the fire department had mentioned in their document.'

Arnold says the council also has significant traffic flow concerns.

Protecting Women and Children In A Disaster

We met Arnold at an event organized for the City Emergency Management Organization by UNICEF. It's a SHELTER MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP focussing on the often overlooked needs of women and children in a disaster. Arnold told us more:..,

The Mayor and The Maximum Leader

And in another story about the City Council, today, the Prime Minister gave us details of the meeting he had with Mayor Bernard Wagner 10 days ago.

As we told you on Friday, the Mayor went to see the Prime Minister after a visit to Krooman Lagoon. The Mayor wants to relocate the residents living in that wetland, aka SWAMP. The PM shared with us his response:…