Congratulations Belize and of course a special congratulations to all Orange Walkeños for another PEACEFUL elections...and a full double elections at that. The satisfaction on the process on the part of the people was evident as the people showed discontent with the Barrow administration by ousting out eight of the present rulers. The message is officially clear: Dissatisfaction with the government and please get rid of the status quo; and People's United Party, you are almost there...clear the remains of 2008 and you are surely in the next time.
Getting rid of incumbents here is like beating the Bulls during their second three-peat with Michael Jordan during the record season at Chicago with Illinois-born referees. Frig....
A feature of our fledgling democracy that needs to change is the idea of campaign financing. The OAS team beat me to the punch when they stated that at their press conference. I will go further to state that it nauseates me that the government of the day will use my(taxpayer) money to campaign for itself. Other than it seeming unethical, and being unfair; "it really stinks" as illegal and disguised theft. Campaign financing needs regulation for our democracy to leap forward into this century.
Parties seem to feel they are walking the plank as they become increasingly transparent and accountable. I suggest that it is not a plank but a bridge across a divide to the promised land of participatory democracy where people would really have an intelligent say.
THE POLLS: Can I suggest that the early polls that showed that about thirty percent of Belizeans are undecided were correct? If thirty percent of the registered people do not come out to vote then would it be correct to say that they are disenchanted with the entire process anyway. Well, yes! a small percent of them are not in country or able but in large part I think it would be a fair assessment.
BELIZE CITY: Our local gerrymandering has reached the end of its time. Belize City constituencies NEED to be re-aligned so the the POWER is distributed really and legally around the country. They have too many constituencies for the amount of people there. Cayo needs more constituencies and maybe Orange Walk. The City had two COWARDS that swayed an entire election. That should NOT be possible.
SHAKRON: The disqualification of Mrs. Shakron from running to me was less important for it being against a woman than the notion that the UDP seemed to realize that Lake Independence was precious. After throwing away a MILLION bets, they were hell-bent to make sure that they did not have this bet thrown away into a waste bin. It was an obvious ploy.
OAS: On election night I told a friend, I would like to see an election in Belize when BANNERS, FLYERS on POSTS, most BILLBOARDS, PARTY COLORS, and most Political Ads would be minimal. AND additionally, that these would disappear on ELECTION day. I want to hear about credible plans and structured solutions. DO NOT attempt to appeal to my sense of entertainment with balloons. When SILLY propaganda is issued, you as a party are insulting my intelligence and the reasoning ability of the Belizean people. Again, the OAS pointed at that. A previous OWInsight post of mine had stated that electioneering is as Belizean as Belizean-time BUT both need to be rendered extinct before Belize can move on.
An OLD IDEA OF MINE: Our Ballot should have the person's picture, name and general qualification and a box beside. Why do I need to have on it which party he or she belongs to or the color? If the pre-election presentation of PLANS were done to the body politic then I would know who to vote for. Some argue that we cannot discriminate from people that will not remember names. I beg to differ on this one. If I cannot remember a person's name and face and his/her plan, then either I do not qualify to have an opinion for this election or the person might not have presented a good plan.
When the election results are final then a group(party) can report to the governor-general as a team.
As to the town council elections, the names of the candidates should be placed in random order. I as the elector will come in and chose the 7 persons who will lead my town for the next 3 years. By the way, make the town council and general synchronous ALWAYS...we will save money and it will make sense. Oh...and then the person with the highest total votes would have the first option in being the mayor. So again, have a list of 14 persons in random order(not even alphabetically). If one party manages to get ALL their seven candidates AFTER this method they would surely have had the better plan in the people's opinion...or at least from those who vote.
BARROW: At his post election conference, he extended a very feeble hand to the opposition and the civil society then ADDED "but don't test us." Drat...he is Barrow after all. He continues being "BEDEVILLED"...tsk tsk tsk. Why does he like devil-rooted words? But it was A LOT for him to say. I would have wanted to hear that he felt that he lost the election. If you are at home and people that lived with you suddenly left, would you feel that you must have been doing things right or that should you change your ways. Barrow voiced the opposite...it sounded like...He must have been doing things right to have some and enough people to stay.
Oh, by the way, Barrow thought it was non-sensible that the OAS would suggest that there was excessive campaigning on election day. He revealed(in my opinion) that he is classless in that regard. He rathers winning a manipulable election than one where a feasible and clear plan is placed before the electorate to judge by the time election day came.
ELECTIONEERING: I have posted enough on voters being bought or at least paid to vote. For the record, I think paying for transportation to the election site, for now, is understandable. I say for now since the government could pay for ALL its registered electors to come out if they cannot under their own physical or economical volition. But this is the future based on NEED. NOW I can repeat, if you got MONEY for your vote and the candidate won, he(no she's) will want his money back and he will take it. This is the old...we get a government that is a sample of our society.
COURTS: If the PUP has credible and sufficient evidence of electoral wrong doing, they should go as far as they can without disrupting growth of our jewel. I DO want to see that complete situation unfurl. In the USA, Al Gore withdrew his suit against George Bush in 2000 for the sake of the nation. He may have had a winning case but he had a gang of Republican-minded judges awaiting.
Belizeans, we now await the reason why the elections were called early. I pray that I, like many others, am wrong and that Dean Barrow really wanted to save money. I though think that there is some hard decision that has to be made and he will surprise us now. This decision would be one that would have caused a definite loss at the polls had he waited for 2013. Now, he will make that decision and sit on it for five years. Hopefully we pay for those two companies that in essence are stolen. Even Robin Hood was a thief.
I do wish us Belize the best; I do wish our government the best!!
Lets get to work!!
I wish the best for Belize...also. Congrats all..
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