It's been the most winning political party in Belize's history and, dating back to the city council election of 1996, the PUP had not lost an election. But when they did on March first, they outdid even the UDP's record for electoral futility.
In the March first municipals, the PUP failed to get more than 40% of the vote nationally: only 38.55% of the voters cast their ballot for a PUP candidate, while 59.75% voted for UDP candidates.
If you want more proof of how bad the defeat is just look to the fact that of the 22 divisions where electors were eligible for municipal elections, the PUP won just two. Those two are the Fort George division where Prime Minister and long time area representative Said Musa won by 268 votes and Orange Walk Central, where the PM's Deputy John Briceno won by 128 votes. In every other division, the PUP lost handily.
Its consequential because over the next few months as the PUP tries to re-connect with its base and keep itself politically viable for general elections in 2008, many decisions will be based on who died and who stayed alive at the polls on March first.
And who gets the honors for the worst? Certainly Port Loyola the UDP decimated the PUP by a 1,492 vote margin, with the red earning about 65% of the vote. The PUP were also crushed in Mesop. where they lost by 810 votes. Queen Square when they lost by 904 votes and Collet where they lost by 499 votes.
And while those defeats are devastating, the PUP leadership can console itself by saying that it has no active standard bearer in any of those four divisions. And that's why Caribbean Shores, where there is a standard bearer and a ranking minister stands out.
In Works Minister Joe Coye's division, the PUP lost by 767 votes, in Defence Minister Cordel Hyde's Divison, they lost by 653 votes and in Education Minister Francis Fonseca's Freetown they lost by 383 votes. The news for the blue was not much better in Pickstock, an eternal PUP stronghold where the PUP lost by 151 votes.
For the losing divisions, the margin of defeat was smallest in Albert with 62 votes, the only division with a disparity less than 100. The PUP had not lost any elections in any of those 5 divisions we just listed in at least a decade.
It's a lot of numbers, and they are loaded with meaning for the high octane PUP politicos who'll spend the next few months analyzing overall weaknesses and strengths and from that, determining who gets served and who gets eaten before '08.
