BELMOPAN, Belize - Two government ministers have been returned to Parliament even before a vote has been cast in the March 12 general elections, after they were nominated unopposed for their seats on Monday.
Government ministers Anthony Mahler and Henry Charles Usher, have won their seats after their opponents were not nominated on Monday to contest the March 12 general election.Minister of the Public Service, Constitutional and Political Reform and Religious Affairs, Henry Charles Usher, and Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Relations, Anthony Mahler, were nominated as candidates of the ruling People’s United Party (PUP) for the Fort George Area and the Pickstock Area constituencies respectively.
Their proposed opponents, Melvin Hewlett and Dean Samuels of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) failed to show. Samuels didn’t show up for his nomination, despite attending the UDP’s march to the Civic Center where the nomination was taking place.
Returning Officer Annisa Perdomo said the allotted time for Nomination Day is between 10.00 am to 4.00 pm (local time) and Usher was the only person that came to get nominated.
“We didn’t have any opposing party from anyone else. So under the section of the Representation of the People’s Act specifically 3.4 it says if at four o’clock in the afternoon only one candidate has been nominated for the seat to be filled the returning officer shall forthwith declare such candidate to have been elected and shall immediately thereafter certify by endorsement on the writ of election the return of that candidate…”
She said she will return the necessary documents to the “Commission for transmission to the Governor General within the time for that purpose specified therewith therein.
“So that’s why I explained I have declared it so now I will go to Belmopan and hand in the write along with the form 20.”
For his part, Mahler said “you never expect this to happen. We’ve geared up, in fact just last night we were meeting about our Election Day metrics and going through all the checklists and to see how we can best improve our efficiency on that day because like the father of the nation always told us “Elections are won or lost on Election Day.” And you have to be prepared.”
Apart from the two main political parties, persons representing The Alliance of Democracy, the breakaway faction of the UDP, as well as the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) and at least five independent candidates were nominated to contest the polls.
The Elections and Boundaries Commission has not yet released the official number of candidates to contest the elections that Prime Minister John Briceño called nine months ahead of the constitutional deadline.
In the last general elections held on November 11, 2020, the then opposition PUP achieved its first national election victory since 2003, winning 26 seats, while the then incumbent UDP suffered its worst result since 1998, winning the remaining five seats.
Meanwhile, UDP leader Moses “Shyne” Barrow, has thrown his support behind Elva Vega, an independent candidate and former PUP Area Representative for Corozal Bay.
Barrow told reporters that he is confident that Vega has a better chance of securing the seat. “We believe that it is better for Elvia Vega to win that seat than Thea Garcia,” Barrow said, criticizing the former UDP candidate, Herman Riverol, who is now running under the UDP’s breakaway faction headed by Tracy Teager-Panton.
“We will not just put somebody there because, as you know, the gentleman we had there betrayed his party, betrayed his oath, and defected to a third party,” Barrow said, referring to Riverol’s defection, insisting that Riverol “has no chances of winning” and that the decision to endorse Vega comes so as to not “complicate things in that constituency”.
But, Prime Minister Briceño has expressed disappointment at Vega’s decision to run as an independent.
“She knows she can’t win… If she is a good PUP as she claims to be, then she and her supporters will support the candidate of the PUP. That’s the oath that she took,” Briceño told reporters.
The PUP’s candidate for the constituency, Thea Garcia Ramirez, remains confident in her campaign, saying Vega’s entry will not affect her chances at all.
For her part, Taegar-Panton, said she is “very encouraged, very excited” at being nominated to contest the election and was “looking forward to contesting the next general elections”,
She said she believes that if Nomination Day was on the weekend, more supporters would have been present.
“But I think this is a good subset of the people who will be coming to support us on election day,” she said, insisting that her team are “members of the United Democratic Party and we’re here to be nominated as members of the UDP”.
