The village council elections have proven to be the unusually heated frontline of politics leading up to the general elections. And it's particularly so because this is the last test for the political parties to show who has most support leading up to the generals. And while both the PUP and the UDP are claiming control of a majority of the councils, today CEO in the Ministry of National Development which is responsible for the elections told us that it is not as clearly drawn as a blue or red line.
Hugh O'Brien, CEO - Ministry of National Development
"In the north of the country, in the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts, the elections have gone extremely political. As a matter of fact in the Corozal district, of the nine villages where elections were held, in all of them there were clean slates of PUP and clean slates of UDP; chairpersons for both and six councilors for both. And so when the two parties speak about a victory in the Corozal District, they know what they are talking about.
But in the case of the south, especially Toledo, in many cases the villages had, in one village for example there were five nominations for chairperson and there were twenty three councilors who ran in that village. And any attempt to specifically that this was won by this party or that party is making, is judging the candidates who won the elections, which party affiliation they may have and in some cases they may be correct and in some cases it is speculation and they may be wrong. And so it is extremely difficult to say specifically exactly which party won the elections in the Toledo District.
The regulations for managing the elections were never foresaw or never encouraged the participation of the political parties in the process and so it has reached a point where especially in the larger villages, the contests have become very tight and so we may have to reform those regulations for the next village council elections. Clearly the battle for power has become very tense and we have to adjust to that as well."
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
So you're saying that you are going to be allowing open partisan campaigning in these elections?
Hugh O'Brien,
"The Ministry has discouraged it but time has overcome us and the way we conduct elections, like I said, will have to change. The two parties, one of them is the government right now, and therefore we have to understand that this is what has overcome us and we have to adjust to that reality."
Village council elections continue on Sunday.
