Election Date Still Unclear as PUP Campaigns Gain Momentum

Tonight, we are no closer in confirming a date for the general election.  With many campaigns already launched for candidates of the People’s United Party (PUP) it may be safe to say that the date is close.  As the PUP wrapped up its Central Executive Meeting this afternoon, Love News was able to find out how the campaigns were going for some, namely, Orange Walk South’s Abelardo Mai and Fort George’s Henry Usher.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “Well at this time we are organizing ourselves. We are forming our village committees. We are doing some infrastructure work, which is urgently needed because of rains and the streets working with that. But essentially we are all getting committees in place. And so when the whistle blows, we hit the streets.”

Henry Charles Usher, Chairman, People’s United Party: “I can tell you that being in Fort George and being amongst the people is always a privilege and something that I don’t take for granted. There are wonderful people here in the Fort George division that are like family to me and so it’s more than a constituency, I would say it’s more like a community. And these are not voters, these are my family, these are persons that I have the utmost respect for, the utmost love for, because they have supported my father before me, they have supported the People’s United Party continuously, and they continue to work for the betterment of Belize. This is the heartbeat of the party and the heartbeat of the city is Fort George. And you know, I have gotten up every single day with that intention to do absolutely everything that I can for the people of Fort George.”

Both Mai and Usher have been juggling hefty portfolios and their respective divisions.  We asked them about the balance it took to service both jobs.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “I think it’s always a challenge being a minister. and being an area representative.  You know what type of parliamentary system where you’re divided, divided in three, where you have a family, you have your ministry, and you have a constituency. In many cases,I believe that much more visibility could have been. But my constituents are very well aware that my ministry is very demanding. And two, if the ministry of agriculture, the agriculture sector grows, they too grow along with it. Because my constituency is 100% almost agriculture and so they depend on agriculture, they’re employed in the agriculture sector so I think that gives them a level of satisfaction and I think they have seen enough of the Ministry of Agriculture. They see how much we’ve been involved, how much the industry has advanced. And so while they may not have seen me as much as they may have wanted to, they know that I’ve been busy working for them indirectly and for the country. Because if agriculture grows, so do they grow. Unemployment rates are 3% right now. People have purchasing power, they are working and so they are quite satisfied that while I may have not been 100% visible in the area much work was done to improve their livelihoods.” 

Henry Charles Usher, Chairman, People’s United Party: “As you said, sometimes we go to Belmopan and we get busy with the work of government, but we must never forget the work of the people. They are the ones who elect us. They are the ones that we must work for. They are the ones that we serve and at the end of the day, they are our bosses. And so we have to make sure that we treat our bosses right.”