And the PUP have time to implement their plans, because, for right now at least, on March 5th, 2021, the UDP opposition is just about done and dusted. Of course, these things go in cycles, and in a few years, things will change - they always do.
But right now, it's an interesting historical moment where the UDP continues to hemorrhage, actually losing ground between November 2020 and March 2021.
Jules Vasquez looked at some numbers:
This half wheel is a clear illustration of the PUP's dominance in Wednesday's elections, where 8 blue mayors and 57 blue councillors were elected.
As the map shows, every town and city across the country is blue controlled and San Ignacio is the only mixed council.
But the real story is of the UDP's decline, a nosedive into political oblivion from a position of consistent dominance from 2003 to 2021. And then, crash.
The worst defeat in the modern era since town board and city council. The worst defeat in the modern era since town board and city council elections were synchronised in the year 2000.
When one looks at the total votes per party, the UDP got one hundred. When one looks at the total votes per party, the UDP got one hundred thousand fewer votes than the PUP did on Wednesday. That's only 36% of the vote one of the lowest ever for a mass party.
That's only 36% of the vote, one of the lowest ever for a mass party, and 13 percentage points less than the 49% which the UDP got in 2015 and 13 percentage points less than the 49% which the UDP got in 2015.
The UDP came the closest in San Ignacio Santa Elena. The UDP came the closest in San Ignacio Santa Elena where it got 47% of the vote - its lowest total there in over 20 years.
And they were the furthest off in Orange Walk where they got less than a quarter of the total votes, with only 23% of the voters supporting them. In terms of total votes, the PUP beat them by more than three to one.
For comparison we note that in 2020, the UDP got 37.4% of the total votes countrywide, in this election, they got 36.36%.
Turnout in this election was 57% nationally, and in the 2018 municipals, it was also 57%.
