And before the historic and unprecedented declarations of victory by default, this morning started off as usual with nominations for the PUP. All ten of their Belize City standard bearers gathered on Faber's Road and paraded to the Civic Center. There was no shortage of supporters or nominators, but this nomination day hit different for them. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.
Hundreds of PUP supporters flooded the streets from Faber's Road down Central American Boulevard, all the way up to the entrance of the Civic Center. That's where this year's nomination day took place for the Belize City standard bearers.
The fanfare is a significant part of the process - trucks, posters, shirts, and of course, the people who made up the parade. It was a show of muscle in the city, with Caribbean Shores, Pickstock, and Freetown among the strongest.
Lake I's showing was also impressive as usual and their standard bearer explained that this time around, something different is in the air.
Cordel Hyde, PUP Standard Bearer, Lake I
"It was great we've been in many nomination day parades before but this one kinda took the cake, it was really heavy, it was a lot of love, a lot of happiness, people were on their best behavior. It was one for the ages, to me at least, but I still get excited about these things after all these years. So it was a big deal and I'm glad it went well and we're here. Finally got nominated."
Courtney Menzies:
"Do you feel like the energy is more electric this time around because of the state of the opposition and that feeling that that win is in the bag?"
Cordel Hyde, PUP Standard Bearer, Lake I
"Well I think that the reverse would be the case, I think that it would be easy for our membership and our loyal supporters to feel like it's okay, we've won already, and we don't have to work so hard, we don't have to come out as much but we've been kind of persistent in saying to them that you don't win elections until the very next day, we can't take elections for granted, we can't take the people for granted. Nothing is guaranteed and so what we know we can do and what we can control is work as hard as we can each and every day as if there's no tomorrow, as though our lives depend on it, as though we're behind."
And this nomination day is unprecedented because of the divided United Democratic Party. Some constituencies - including Lake I - will be having two red squares on their ballots. Hyde said it's something he didn't think would ever happen.
Cordel Hyde, PUP Standard Bearer, Lake I
"I've been around too long sometimes because like I never thought I'd see this. Back in 1993 we did have the UDP break up into two but they made up in time for the general elections and so what you had was a coalition of NABR, National Alliance for Belizean Rights led by Phillip Goldson and the UDP proper and they came together as one and agree on who would represent in each constituency."
Reporter:
"By nomination we'd have already seen that unity."
Cordel Hyde, PUP Standard Bearer, Lake I
"Oh yeah I mean it was immediately after the PUP announced the election date, in a very short period they got together and said, you know what, we're one party."
"So it was less personal I think, this time around is nothing I've seen before so I don't know."
But they're focused on checking their change - not the UDP's noise. Hyde said that the convention straight into nomination day set the pace leading up to election day.
Cordel Hyde, PUP Standard Bearer, Lake I
"Maybe it's the schedule, the calendar, we had a massive national convention last week, the national convention served to energize people, served to kind of set your membership across the country on the right track in terms of being focused on what's ahead and then nomination day is 8 days later so we just build it on that and hopefully we can continue to build and have that crescendo into March the 12th."
