By Bert Wilkinson
Caribbean Community
governments are being asked
to once again assemble yet
another team of observers as
authorities in the regional bloc
member nation of Belize have
called general elections for
Nov. 11 in what is turning out
to be a record breaking year for
polls in the grouping.
Little known to people in the
15-nation CARICOM grouping,
the Central American nation
bordering Guatemala and Mexico
is hardly in the focus of
people in the region. Events
in Belize City, the commercial
capital and Belmopan,
the administrative and official
capital, hardly reach media
houses in the CARICOM. Little
is known about daily events
there.
For the next few weeks,
however, the eyes of governments,
political pundits, critics
and pollsters will be on
Belize and its nearly 200,000
eligible voters.
The race in Belize will occur
just five weeks after voters in
Bermuda reelected the government
Caribbean L 28 ife, Oct. 9-15, 2020
of Premier David Burt
in a landslide victory and two
months after electors in Jamaica
gave the governing Jamaica
Labor Party (JLP) a consecutive
five year term with
the second worst thrashing of
the main opposition People’s
National Party (PNP) in living
memory. The JLP walked away
with a whooping 49 of the 63
seats almost as good as the 51
of the 60 seats it had won in
the highly controversial and
blood-stained 1980 general
elections.
In Belize, four political parties
will vie for the 31 seats in
parliament with the incumbent
United Democratic Party
(UDP) of retiring Prime Minister,
Dean Barrow slightly
favored to win a fourth term
at the expense of the People’s
United Party (PUP).
Parliament was dissolved on
Monday and nomination day
would be Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Belizeans last voted on Nov.
4, 2015.
But even as campaigning is
stepped up, the region is also
awaiting the announcement of
an election date from Prime
Minister, Ralph Gonsalves in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
in the coming days.
Unless Prime Minister, Gaston
Browne in Antigua surprisingly
and unexpectedly carries
through with threats to go to
the polls and upend the fortunes
of the opposition United
Progressive Party (UPP) then
the imminent one in St. Vincent
is expected to be the very
last in the region and its wider
family of associate members
for a tumultuous 2020.
So far, governments have
organized polls in Guyana,
Suriname, St. Kitts, Trinidad,
Jamaica, Dutch St. Maarten,
Anguilla and The Dominican
Republic. In the main CARICOM
bloc, Guyana and Suriname
were the only nations
which saw a change of government
with the People’s Progressive
Party (PPP) returning
Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow signs the Paris Agreement
on climate change at United Nations Headquarters in
Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 22, 2016. REUTERS / Carlo
Allegri, File
to power after a single term in
opposition and the Hindustani
VHP taking control in Suriname.
As PM Barrow retires, the
UDP will this week install
deputy prime minister Patrick
Faber, 42 as its new leader
and incoming PM if the party
indeed wins the elections at a
virtual campaign launch ceremony
in the city. The UDP is
going into the contest with 19
of the 31 seats.
CARICOM braces for yet
another general elections
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