But will the municipal elections turn out to be a super spreader event - much like the general elections in November? Well, we may not have to wait that long to report an increase in numbers, since there was a large crowd gathered outside BES awaiting the results of the convention and milling around to clutch unto the political personalities.
But despite that crowd, the chairman of the party, Henry Charles Usher, rejects the possibility of a COVID risk, since he said that they followed all the safety regulations - inside the building, at least.
Hon. Henry Charles Usher- Minister of Public Service
"I think it is important just to go through the process of how we decided on our slates. The national executive met in December and at that meeting, they decided on two bodies. The vetting committee that will be looking at applicants and steering committees for each municipality to determine the way forward, taking into account of course the Covid measures and regulations and so on that we couldn't have these big conventions that usually come before the decision on slates. So the steering committees from each municipalities decided the way forward. As you know, last week we had the swearing-in of our Orange Walk town council slate. We had the swearing-in of our Corozal town council slate and our town council slate in San Pedro. The weekend just past, on Saturday we had a convention in Belize City, it was a delegate convention. Based on our party's constitution which says that you get one delegate for every 25 votes received at the last general election. So there were a total of 707 possible delegates at Saturday's convention. The convention was just for the councilors because only one person applied for the mayoral seat. Mayor Bernard Wagner went unchallenged. At that convention, on Saturday the 10 councilors were selected by the delegates."
Courtney Menzies- Reporter
"Sir, the convention, I am sure you have heard, the Belize City convention had a huge crowd at it. And you know the law says anybody who hosts or attends a gathering of more than 10 people is held liable. Was this a super spreader event?"
Hon. Henry Charles Usher
"Courtney I'm not a doctor and I'm sure you're not either but certainly we followed every single regulation out there when we had that convention. It was done at the Belize Elementary School Compound using the gym. We had markers set up outside where persons had to stand 6 feet apart. We did it by constituencies meaning there were time slots by each constituency so you did not have 707 showing up at the same time. You had Albert coming between a certain time, Fort George, Pickstock, Caribbean Shores, and so on. So, I completely disagree with your statement."
Municipal Elections will be held on March 3rd.
