People’s Democratic Movement Launches Manifesto Ahead of Elections

Just a week before the elections, the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) officially launched its Manifesto. The PDM presented a document that details the party’s values and priority areas for its four candidates. The manifesto contains 21 development pillars which are grouped under the areas of reform, empowerment, and prosperity. In its agenda, the PDM unveiled ambitious goals such as constitutional reform which would see the Prime Minister Elected in the same way a mayor is elected in the municipal elections. The party is also pushing for a proportional representation model of governance, which it says will allow for greater accountability in government. Party Chairman George Myvett says that the Manifesto will guide the PDM in providing Belizeans with an alternative from the major political parties.

George Myvett, Chairman, PDM: “I call it a movement because party gives the insinuation and the connotation that it might be temporary. The People’s Democratic Movement is people-based and it is here to stay. People use the word third party. That is not something that I personally use. I say the alternate party. It’s an alternative to what we have had thus far. The solution for Belize hinges on three main issues. It hinges on empowerment, reform, and prosperity. What you don’t have in Belize is prosperity. What you don’t have in Belize is any meaningful reform, GOB, and that is both the blue and the red, they have been talking about UNCAC. the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, and that is all it is. It’s talk. The People’s Democratic Movement is dedicated to empowering people.”

Deputy Leader Lenobia Young spoke on the benefits a third party brings to democracy, while Party Leader Estevan Perrera spoke on issues residents shared with him while on the campaign trail. 

Lenobia Young, Deputy Leader, DPM: “Giving a third party a chance. It’s giving you and I a chance. It’s giving our family a chance. It’s giving our grandparents a chance, our grandchildren, our grandchildren’s children a chance. A third party brings fresh visions, new perspectives, and even challenge the both party, the dominant parties, the red and the blue to even do better. It forces them to adapt and even to improve with healthy competition.”

Estevan Perrera, Party Leader, PDM: “I am running in the Belize Rural Central constituency and I have been in there fighting and I have just left Hattieville and the people of Hattieville are saying that in Hattieville they don’t even have an ATM machine. They don’t even have a high school. Not one street is paved in Hattieville. There is no employment in Hattieville. And yet, you look on the television, Channel Five, Channel Seven, and you see the deputy party leader boasting that he has done so much in the country, bringing in new schools, bringing in new jobs. I don’t know what world he’s living in.”

The PDM has four candidates contesting in the upcoming elections in the Belize Rural North, Port Loyola, Albert, and Queen Square divisions./