On Friday, February 13, 2009, Chief Elections Officer Mrs. Marilyn Ordonez, of the Elections and Boundaries Department of Belize, met with both political parties with the objective to ensure that the candidates and their representatives are aware of the rules, policies and procedures governing the election process and that all of them are in agreement with them.
Sitting with Mrs. Ordonez was Mayor Elsa Paz, Mr. Harry Longsworth of the Traffic Department, San Pedro Police Officers and Mr. Eiden Salazar, Mr. Andre Perez and Mr. Baldemar Graniel (members of the PUP).
The polling stations for this year’s election will be situated at the San Pedro Roman Catholic School and the main topics discussed during the meeting were those pertaining to maintaining a smooth voting process during election day. Topics discussed included policing, polling and counting agents, polling stations, limits of polling stations, hours of voting, appointment of agents and their responsibilities and overall elections management rules amongst other smaller details.
The official count of registered voters for the municipal elections is 5,010 for San Pedro. Nine polling stations will be set up with the following number of voters registered in each:
A-B (700)
C (632)
D-F (327)
G (488)
H-L (563)
M-N (642)
O-Q (402)
R-S (664)
T-Z (592)
Nominations 2009
Both political parties and their supporters hit the streets on Monday, January 16, as they headed to the Town Council to officially nominate the seven candidates of each party who will be running for a seat at the Town Council elections on March 4. Officiating the nominations were Marilyn Ordonez and Cynthia Castillo of the Election and Boundaries department.
The People’s United Party had its parade in the morning after which the official nomination took place and the San Pedro Town Hall. The following is the list of candidates and the nominators:
PUP MAYORAL CANDIDATE:
* Baldemar Graniel: Paulino Pineda & Narciso Santos
PUP COUNCILOR CANDIDATES:
* Andre Perez: Kainie Manuel & Marlon Guevara
* Ian Pau: Ricky Manzano & Anita Carillas
* Ana Cal Najarro: Emelida “Melly” Kumul & Mel Spain
* Vianey Perez: Marlen Paz & Yoli Galvez
* Debbie Spain: Argelia Forman & Bernadette Reyes
* Marina Kay: Lily Nuñez & Ricardo “Pepe” Molina
While the United Democratic Party hit the streets in the afternoon with their crowd of supporters. The candidates and nominators for the UDP are as follows:
UDP MAYORAL CANDIDATE:
* Elsa Paz: Efrain Guerrero Sr. & Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
UDP COUNCILOR CANDIDATES:
* Severo Guerrero: Samuel Gonzalez & Joel Chi
* Juan Alamilla: Manuel Leiva & Mario Leal
* Pablo Ico: Rigoberto Kumul & Efrain Guerrero Jr.
* Jospeh Elijio: Kendra Humes & Harry Longworth
* Nesto Gomez: Jason Edwards & Jose Manuel Heredia
* Justinano Guerrero: Winston Panton & Yolanda Parham
With these nominations the Town Council has officially been dissolved, which means that no new transactions or projects can be taken by the councilors until after elections. The Town Council will only work on the daily routines that keep the town running. Municipal elections are set for Wednesday, March 4, 2009 and the polling station will be the San Pedro Roman Catholic School.
