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Written by CTV3 Publisher Wednesday, 01 February 2012 03:42

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The suspense is over.  On Friday the Governor General will dissolve the National Assembly and Belizeans will go to the polls to elect a new Government on March 7^th, the same day that they will elect a new Municipal Government. The news came around midmorning when word from Cabinet leaked out that the Prime Minister would be announcing the date for the General Election.

And then at around 11:30am the Prime Minister addressed the nation in a pre-recorded message where he officially announced that both Municipal and General Election will be held on March 7^th. Backed up by his entourage of U.D.P Ministers and Standard Bearers, the Prime Minister announced his decision to the media during a press conference held this afternoon in Belize City.

Honorable Dean Barrow- Prime Minister of Belize

“I visited the Governor General this morning at about quarter to nine and there is a formal letter that is being prepared that I will sign to be send to him, the announcement made clear that I have asked him to dissolve the National Assembly with effect from Friday, I did not think that the dissolution and the announcement could take place on the same day simply as a matter of logistics when the formal proclamation dissolving the National Assembly is signed by the Governor General the expectation is that at the same time sign the writ of election and there is certain information that will have to be contained in that writ, the returning officer will have to be chosen and all that sort of critical housekeeping exercise must be done by the Elections and Boundaries Commission and by the Chief Elections Officer, this way making the announcement today gives those officials a chance as a consequence of meetings that will no doubt hold later this evening or certainly I would think no later than tomorrow to in fact do that kind of selection/appointment process and I thought enough lee time was required so that when the election writ is prepared for the G.G’s signature on Friday all our doubts would have been in a row.”

Among the reasons for setting the date of the General Election on the same date as the Municipal Elections, the Prime Minister said he took into consideration how expensive elections are and believed that by having these elections on the same day would save the Belizean Tax payers. Now, that is something that took us by surprise. All of a sudden the Prime Minister is thinking about the tax payers when for the past four years the Belizean people have been suffering due to the high cost of living which he promised to bring down no matter what? Puts one to think doesn’t it?

During his press conference the Prime Minister also called on all political parties to do their part in order to ensure that both elections are held in a peaceful manner.

Honorable Dean Barrow- Prime Minister of Belize

“I never the less take this opportunity to appeal now to my own party, my own candidates and the other parties and all the other candidates that will be contesting the General Elections to do absolutely everything that is necessary to ensure that the elections will be peaceful.”

As early as Sunday, in Guinea Grass Village, here in the Orange Walk District, the Prime Minister was informing his Party Supporters to get ready for the General Election.

Political pundits are already saying that the decision to call early elections may have also been influenced by the fact that the PM could not afford an embarrassment should his party lose major ground in the March 7^th Municipal Elections.  After all, the calling of elections almost one full year before the completion of the term in office is something political insiders say is a gamble.

The last time elections were called early was in 1993 when the PUP called the elections early only to end up in a defeat.

Here in the north, the news of the March 7^th date did not come as any great surprise to the PUP. In fact, PUP leaders had recently met with former Party Leader and Orange Walk Central Area Representative the Honorable John Briceno to discuss the possibility of an early election.

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