And while the PUP's party leader had his nomination in the North, many of his colleagues are preparing to contest the all-important battleground of Belize City - where 10 Constituencies are bunched up into less than 15 square miles.
This morning it was the PUP's town, where supporters came out in varying degrees of compliance, or non compliance with quarantine regulations, and delivered lofty campaign pitches, all the while rocking masks stencilled with the word BLU.
Cherisse Halsall followed their path across the city, here's her report.
It was nomination morning for the PUP in Belize City. And while it was a strange and subdued pandemic time nomination, some divisions still managed to hold on to the revelry.
Candidate for Queen Square Allan Pollard claims he had to rent a last minute bus to accommodate the wishes of his supporters to celebrate.
This morning he told us that officially becoming his party's Queen Square standard Bearer is a very big deal.
Cherisse Halsall "Okay, Mr. Pollard today is nomination day how you feeling?"
Allan Pollard - PUP Candidate, Queen Square "I'm feeling great, I'm feeling excited. I mean after today everything is official, I mean we put in a bunch of work already but after today it really signifies for both formality and for official sake and for the people that you know i'm installed in the officially, so I'm very excited and it's a big step for me, it's my first nomination, my first candidacy in national politics so it's a very big, it's a big deal for me right now very, very, very, big."
Cherisse Halsall "Now it's easy for people to say that you're young, you're vibrant and you could bring sweeping change. However, you are running against Sista B, who is a powerhouse in politics. Are you nervous at all?"
Allan Pollard "Nervous no, we know who our opponent is, we know the system that they have in place, we know their machinery is well oiled but it doesn't strike an inch of fear in us I mean we came in this thing knowing what we were getting into and we are serious, we are ready and we are energized."
Over in the Caribbean Shores division, we saw Kareem Musa arrive at his nomination center with far less fanfare but a supportive and socially distanced group of nominators.
Kareem Musa - PUP Candidate, Caribbean Shores "The day is like a prize fight when you go into the ring, you have all your supporters behind you, uplifting you, empowering you and propelling you to be their representative. Obviously today is a much different feel from 5 years ago where we had a huge parade in the streets, it was a wet 2015 but nonetheless, we are here today because we are ready to represent Caribbean Shores once again. So the energy is still high, what you're seeing here only 6 of us that will be nominating me today but nevertheless, we came from the Caribbean Shores office just a little while ago where a number of our supporters came out, a lot of the campaigners because they thought we were going to have a motorcade, so we were able to speak with them, we were able to still keep that energy high amongst the campaigners. So we still got that little feel of energy today, so we're appreciative, we're excited and we are only days away, 21 days away from the elections, so we are ready."
It was much the same for Henry Charles Usher who was nominated early:
Henry Charles Usher - PUP Candidate, Fort George "I am very excited and humbled and I want to thank the supporters as well who came out in full force to show their support for me and for the party. Any politician has to build a relationship with his or her people for them to be successful, I grew up here in Fort George, I grew up in keyhole alley, I grew up with the people, I developed a relationship over many years with almost all the residence of this division. In addition to that, I have worked in this division for the past 15 years, supporting the Rt. Hon. Said Musa, who represented this area so greatly for so many years, we've also campaigned on behalf of city councils and different campaigns that we've had. So the relationship that I have build with the residence of Fort George is one that we are really counting on to ensure that on election day, we have the full support of the people and we deliver another massive victory on behalf of the party."
And one man who's almost sure to do just that is Cordel Hyde, he's the opposition's National Deputy and holds what is statistically the safest seat in the city. This morning he told us that he sees his candidacy as a privilege.
Cordel Hyde - PUP Candidate, Lake Independence "It's a privilege the thing we do and we don't take it for granted, we've been working very hard and we're very excited about it and the job of representing people, is a privilege, it's also fun, we've had a hectic campaign but we've had a lot of fun doing it and so this is one step closer to the ultimate day. The real deal is November 11th and so it's about building up to that, we would have loved to have some fun today with our people because they've worked really hard they've been looking forward to this but we'll respect the authorities."
Those authorities had a problem with two of Anthony Mahler's supporters in Pickstock as they were detained for failing to observe social distance protocols.
Just before noon, we met up with Candidate Anthony Mahler who's hoping to take the division WHICH has been a UDP stronghold since 2008.
Anthony Mahler - PUP Candidate, Pickstock "It's been a long road for me so it's an exciting one and I know that on election day we will deliver for the people's united party. I have been supported by wonderful people hundreds and thousands of people supporting us in the pickstock division. That has given me the energy to keep going every single day, even in the lights of COVID and this pandemic that we've been fighting for the last 6 or 7 months. We have been able to change with he times and we've been able to meet as many voters, we call them, by going out as much as possible but just putting the work. Politics is about understanding people, the needs of people, communicating with people but you have to continue to work day in and day out no matter what."
And after all those pledges, promises, and declarations the PUP candidates will have to run their race with the hope that the Belizean people are finally ready to give them another chance after a 12 year drought.
