For the second week in a row, both major political parties are claiming victory in the village council elections. The UDP struck first sending out a fax at 12:00 noon saying that in the 56 villages were elections were held, it won thirty, ten went independent, and the PUP won 16. And not to be outdone, by 12:30, the PUP had sent us its version. It claimed that the PUP won in 29 villages, four went independent, and the UDP got 23.
So who's right and who's wrong. Well it'll take about a week to figure that out but what we do know is that of the battleground villages that we identified Trial Farm was won by the UDP. As we told you on Friday, it's a major hotspot because it is a long held PUP stronghold in Orange Walk North and is one of the largest villages in the north.
So it became a major proving ground for the as yet unproven Deputy Leader of the UDP Gaspar Vega. It made for a dramatic showdown that was contested with all the fever and ferocity of a general election. So with the help of Northern Cable Network and Centaur TV 3, here are some highlights.
Jules VasquezReporting,
In Trial Farm Village just north of Orange Walk Town, council elections were fierce. And it started from early in the morning in the Trial Farm Government School where the UDP objected to the candidacy of Pedro Briceno who was offering himself for Chairman. In a letter that the UDP presented to the officer in charge of the election, Kathleen Tate, they claimed that Briceno had not accounted for the council's funds. The candidate for Chairman, Briceno protested to Pate.
Pedro Briceno, Candidate for Chairman
"I would like to make a point. There is nothing from the court here. Is there something from the court here? They are calling me guilty without the proceeding of a court hearing."
Kathleen Tate, Officer Conducting Elections
"I am doing what I should be doing…I am not here to be the judge of anybody's dirty laundry. I am here to conduct an election. My thing is that I was just reading this because it was handed to me and I said I don't want to be bias on anybody's side so I am doing what I should be doing. This is not a thing from the court so I can't accept it as and if they want to contest it or they want to follow it up, it will be against you all. It is not going to be against me."
With that challenge out of the way, the election continued in that same spirit of bitter contention. There was maximum ground deployment of party leaders including
area representative Servulo Baeza, Orange Walk general and deputy PUP Party Leader John Briceno, Baeza's challenger deputy party leader Gaspar Vega, and former UDP leader Manuel Esquivel. And to that - the volatile presence of PUP supporters from Belize City and you had a situation that sometimes erupted into open conflict.
[Clip of Conflict]
In this case some of the PUP supporters ended up being carted away in a police mobile.
And the aggression went both ways. Jorge Aldana, reporter for the John Briceno owned CTV-3 claimes he was slapped by the UDP standard bearer for Orange Walk Central Rosendo Urbina.
Compare all that chaos to village council elections in Bermudian Landing, where at least one national UDP figure was present but the mood was cool and patient even though there was a line voters had to wait in.
UDP Deputy Vega also won San Jose, San Pablo and San Antonio making it a clean sweep for him in Orange Walk North, according to a UDP release. The other battleground village we identified is San Antonio in the Cayo District, which has traditionally been the bulwark of the PUP in its division. That was also claimed by the UDP.
