And in other news, Caye Caulker's chairlady, Seleny Villanueva Pott, is in the running for this year's village council elections. But while many had thought she would be running under a PUP slate, she's going the route of her previous two terms - an independent slate. Villanueva Pott told us on Saturday that while the island leans toward the PUP in general elections, she doesn't feel like they did enough the last time they were in power on the local level.
So while she had indicated previously that she wouldn't have run again if she didn't get an endorsement from her area rep, she decided to listen to the people of Caye Caulker and made the last minute decision to step up for a third term, this time with a full slate behind her.
Seleny Villanueva Pott, Chairlady, Caye Caulker
"You know going through COVID, which was long and hard, leadership under COVID, for anybody in a leadership position, was hard and I believe at that point, maybe my spirits were dampened and I didn't want to look for a challenge but after consultation again with the people of Caye Caulker, I decided that we could do this with or without an endorsement and I opted to listen to the people so that's why I decided to go independent."
"I believe I worked hard for my community. COVID changed everything, a lot of the projects that we wanted to accomplish, unfortunately we couldn't, but we know and I know that during the time when my community needed me the most, I was there. Having a health background I believe was of paramount important to my community, leading in the unknown, it was scary, the world didn't know what was happening, and to have the health background provided some level of security for my Caye Caulker community and we did what we needed to do to ensure that we were okay and to venture off into the unknown. I keep telling everybody, I believe I worked hard, not yesterday, not today, but the entire six years that I've been in council so the people will ultimately decide what they want."
Courtney Menzies:
"Why do you think an independent slate is best for Caye Caulker?"
Seleny Villanueva Pott, Chairlady, Caye Caulker
"Caye Caulker vote people, not party. We've seen where we've voted, the times- we voted UDP once, predominantly it's a PUP stronghold, however, we felt neglected under the PUP. We're rebounding from that, we're seeing a lot of works being done and I honestly think that Caye Caulker have always voted people and not party. they're open to people who would listen to them, who would advocate for Caye Caulker and I believe I'm an advocate for Caye Caulker."
She will be going up against multiple slates, both partly aligned and independent.
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