And while the parties agreed to a code of conduct, today there was some question as to whether Belize Rural Central Area Representative Ralph Fonseca has violated BEL's safety code. Yesterday - leading up to a meeting he held in the Ladyville area last night - Fonseca's people put up colorful signs all across Ladyville. Nothing wrong with the signs, but they are on lamp-posts and BEL has already warned both parties and taken down UDP signs which were nailed on, or placed too high. And it looks to us like Fonseca might fall under the same ruling.
But would BEL be bold enough to take down the sing for the Utilities and Police Minister? Well today Corporate Communications Manager Dawn Sampson told us they will - if they are too high or if they are nailed. Looks to us like they are - and so we put it to both the PUP Secretary General and the UDP Chairman today.
Doug Singh,
"Fonseca is the head of the police as a Minister and he is the head of the Public Utilities, he is the Minister of Utilities and that Ministry falls under him which means that he has gone completely in defiance of what the utility company has to say and perhaps created a kind of situation for police enforcement of what the utility rules are because he controls both of these divisions so that should create an interesting situation."
Henry Charles Usher,
"Its not a total banning of posters, they just said you can't put it to a certain height it would affect the wires, you can't use nails because the nails are conducting material, staples and things like that, but other materials, glue, paint, things like that you can use so we BEL is open to us using that. They are against the painting of the posts which the UDP is clearly doing."
Doug Singh,
"A number of the paintings that actually went on, went on prior to BEL's re-enforcing, as they claim re-enforcing their position. I noted clearly in correspondence from the first meeting that they would have preferred us not to have painted the sign but since it doesn't pose a safety issue, while the would prefer that we don't do it - they want to maintain as much as a neutrality that they were not going to do anything about us painting it, even though they would have preferred us not to but there were no strict mandates. They have changed that position in our view and said that they request that we not paint it. Of course some posts have been painted before."
