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People's United Party



Leader	Francis Fonseca Francis Fonseca Francis Fonseca is a Belizean politician and a member of the People's United Party . First elected to office in 2003 as the Area Representative for Freetown in the Belize District, he served as Attorney General and Minister of Education, Culture and Labour until February 2008, when the PUP lost a...

Established	1950
Headquarters	Independence Hall, 3 Queen Street, Belize City Belize City Belize City is the largest city in the Central American nation of Belize. Unofficial estimates place the population of Belize City at 70,000 or more. It is located at the mouth of the Belize River on the coast of the Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and... , Belize

Political ideology	Christian Democracy Christian Democracy Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching... , Social Democracy Social democracy Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
Political position	Centre Centrism In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between... -Centre-left Centre-left Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum...

Website	PUP website

The People's United Party is one of two major political parties in Belize

Belize

Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

, and currently the main opposition party. It is a Christian Democratic

Christian Democracy

Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...

party; the current Party Leader is Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca is a Belizean politician and a member of the People's United Party . First elected to office in 2003 as the Area Representative for Freetown in the Belize District, he served as Attorney General and Minister of Education, Culture and Labour until February 2008, when the PUP lost a...

.

The PUP governed Belize from independence in 1981 to 1984, and then from 1989 to 1993 and from 1998 to 2008. Under former leader George Cadle Price

George Cadle Price

George Cadle Price PC was the first Prime Minister of Belize and is considered to have been one of the principal architects of the country's independence, and is today referred to by many as "the Father of the Nation"....

, it had dominated Belizean politics from the first elections in 1954 to 1984.

The PUP won 22 of the 29 seats in the House of Representatives

House of Representatives of Belize

The House of Representatives of Belize is one of two chambers of the National Assembly, the other being the Senate. It was created under the 1981 constitution....

in 2003. It subsequently held 21 seats after losing one to the United Democratic Party

United Democratic Party (Belize)

The United Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in Belize, and currently the ruling party, having won the 2008 general elections. A centre-right conservative party, it is currently led by Dean Barrow.-Founding:...

in a by-election in October 2003, after the death of one of their Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

(MPs).

After nearly ten years in power, the PUP lost the February 2008 election

Belizean legislative election, 2008

A legislative election was held in the nation of Belize on February 7, 2008. Beginning with this election, Belizeans elected to the House of Representatives 31 members instead of 29...

, winning six out of 31 seats.

The party colors are blue

Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...

and white

White

White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...

Leaders

John Smith (1950 – 1952)
Leigh Richardson (Acting) (1953 – 1956)
George Cadle Price
George Cadle Price
George Cadle Price PC was the first Prime Minister of Belize and is considered to have been one of the principal architects of the country's independence, and is today referred to by many as "the Father of the Nation"....

(1956 – 1996)
Said Musa
Said Musa
Said Wilbert Musa is a Belizean lawyer and politician. He was the Prime Minister of Belize from August 28, 1998 to February 8, 2008.-Early life and education:Said Musa was born in San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize...

(1996 – 2008)
John Briceño
John Briceño
Juan Antonio Briceño, commonly known as "John" or "Johnny" , is a Belizean politician who has been the leader of the People's United Party , as well as the Leader of the Opposition, since 2008. Previously, he was Deputy Prime Minister from 1998 to 2007.-Political career of Briceno:Briceño was born...

(2008 – 2011)
Francis Fonseca
Francis Fonseca
Francis Fonseca is a Belizean politician and a member of the People's United Party . First elected to office in 2003 as the Area Representative for Freetown in the Belize District, he served as Attorney General and Minister of Education, Culture and Labour until February 2008, when the PUP lost a...

(October 29, 2011 - present)

1940s politics: the trade unions

Belizean politics in the 1940s was dominated by activists from the trade unions, particularly the Workers and Tradesmen's Union (later the General Workers Union

General Workers' Union (Belize)

British Honduras Workers and Tradesmen's Union, the first central trade union organization in Belize. Founded in 1939 by Antonio Soberanis Gómez. Registered as a legal trade union in 1943. Shortly thereafter it changed its name to General Workers Union....

), which had just received its right to organize British Honduran workers. Among the Union's leaders (some of whom would later be prominent in the PUP) were Clifford Betson, Antonio Soberanis, Henry Middleton and Nicholas Pollard Sr.

Nicholas Pollard Sr.

Nicholas Anthony Ignatius Pollard, Sr. was a Belizean politician and trade union leader.He was born in 1924 in Bacalar, Quintana Roo, Mexico to Belizean parents, Stella Alberta Gill and Juan Castro Pollard....

Coalescing against the British

Among the favourite places for anti-British sentiment to manifest itself was the Belize Town Board (now City Council

Elections in Belize

Elections in Belize are the duly held elections held at various levels of government in the nation of Belize.- The Legislature :Dissolving the National Assembly is the prerogative of the Governor General of Belize, currently Sir Colville Young...

), which offered opportunities for anti-colonial elements to gather strength and support from British Hondurans. A group of college-educated students, led by John Smith, George Price

George Cadle Price

, Herbert Fuller and Herman Jex were all elected to positions on the Board and later the Legislative Council, assuring that they would be well placed to act. On December 31, 1949, an incident occurred that would force them to act.

Devaluation and the People's Committee

On this date, a Saturday, the Governor devalued the Belize dollar

Belize dollar

The Belize dollar is the official currency in Belize, formerly known as British Honduras; is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively BZ$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents...

after previously insisting he would not do so. An ad hoc committee, the People's Committee (PC), was formed in January 1950 and began to speak out against this unwelcome act in particular and colonialism in general. Such members as Price and Smith in street corner meetings and Goldson and Richardson behind the printing press of the sympathetic daily the Belize Billboard, pressed the issue and sought the support of the Belizean people. A wave of anti-British and anti-colonial sentiment struck British Honduras (or Belize as the PC called it for the first time) that had never before been seen, not even in the 1930s at the height of Belize's Labour Movement. The PC found that almost overnight it had become the salvation of the people.

Formation

Belizeans rapidly accepted the new party's statements against colonialism and exploitation of the masses. On February 12, 1950, a crowd of 10,000 marched to Government House in Belize City

Belize City

Belize City is the largest city in the Central American nation of Belize. Unofficial estimates place the population of Belize City at 70,000 or more. It is located at the mouth of the Belize River on the coast of the Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and...

and proceeded to stone the houses of supposed pro-British elements. A meeting at the Battlefield Park

Battlefield Park

Battlefield Park is a park in the center of Belize City, Belize. The park has served as the preferred meeting place of Belize's inhabitants since 1638. Labour activist Antonio Soberanis Gómez' Labourers and Unemployed Association got its start there, as did the People's United Party and other...

in central Belize City was teargassed by police, and a state of emergency

State of emergency

A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...

was imposed until July. It was the first time that Belizeans had spoken so forcefully against British colonial policy and on a national level, featuring men and women. By April, the PC/PUP had infiltrated the General Workers Union

General Workers' Union (Belize)

and sought to turn it toward a nationalist, socialist perspective. By September 1950, an overworked PC was forced to admit that it had overreached itself and that the work of enlightening British Hondurans was the vein of a political party. Its members agreed unanimously to the dissolving of the PC and the birth of the PUP on September 29, 1950.

The colonialists respond

A draft constitutional report prepared to examine Belize's readiness for development appeared in April 1951. It argued that the British system allowed Belizeans to "(enjoy) the fruits of their labours" and argued that rapid political development in such a multi-ethnic society as Belize's was "premature". Among its complaints was that development was not uniform among all ethnic groups, the dominance of the Creoles

Creole peoples

The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...

, widespread illiteracy, and overall "backwardness' of Belizeans, especially outside of Belize City

Belize City

. Its views reflected those of the middle class of merchants and colonial supporters who saw no reason for change. The PUP attacked the report, mobilized its supporters against it and declared a break with all things colonial, including the name "British Honduras"; PUP leaders routinely referred to the country as Belize thereafter until the name was officially changed in 1973.

The colonialists also sought to mobilize support, and created a National Party in August 1951 to oppose the PUP; this party drew its support from middle-class Belizeans and British officials. One month earlier the colonial government dissolved the PUP-dominated Belize City Council for neglecting to place a portrait of King George VI

George VI of the United Kingdom

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

in its chambers, and in October jailed PUP leaders Richardson and Phillip Goldson

Phillip Goldson

Philip Stanley Wilberforce Goldson was a Belizean newspaper editor, activist and politician. He served in the House of Representatives of Belize as member for the Albert Division from 1961 to 1998 and twice as a Minister...

for an article in a local newspaper justifying revolution. Leader John Smith left immediately after that, having failed to persuade the party to fly a "Union Jack

Union Flag

The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...

" at its meeting to counter statements that Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

had been aiding the PUP. In City Council elections of 1952, the party won just three of nine seats, with four going to the National Party and two to independents. The National Party had managed to recruit respectable anti-PUP elements from among women's leaders, trade unions and middle-class representatives and presented a better front. Nevertheless, George Price

George Cadle Price

, the only leader to escape the colonial attack, topped the polls.

The general strike

The PUP for the moment turned its attention to the labour front. George Price was named head of the GWU in April 1952, and returning leaders Richardson and Goldson called for a "Crusade against Colonialism". The national holiday, on September 10, was dominated by a PUP-sponsored parade that clearly showed how much it had grown beyond its early years. Another opportunity came in October 1952 after workers at a Stann Creek citrus factory called a strike and were joined by their fellows in the Colonial Development Cooperation, United Fruit Company

United Fruit Company

It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...

, Public Works Department and Belize Estate Company sawmill operations. Originally called for two days, the strike lasted 49 days on the support of Belizeans across the country, forcing the colonial government to capitulate and call for negotiations with all of the managements except for the BEC, which shut down its sawmill and left 268 workers jobless. Calls for scab labour were met with violence from demonstrators and a number of people were arrested, but by December 8 some 48 workers were on the job and the GWU called off the strike. Membership in the GWU (and support for the PUP) rose dramatically.

First national elections

The new constitution envisioned by the 1951 draft report called for universal adult suffrage

Suffrage

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

and a Legislative Council of nine members. General elections, the nation's first, were called for April 28, 1954 and were contested by the PUP, the NP and independent candidates. The PUP stressed anti-colonialism and stood against the proposed British West Indies Federation which they claimed would destroy Belize's economy; their opponents continued to argue that the PUP was a front for Guatemala. The GWU proved important in getting out the vote in the districts and even provided candidates in certain areas. On election day, 70% of the electorate voted, awarding the PUP eight seats and the National Party 1. A chagrined colonial government pledged to work with the PUP; the cautious victors replied that such a partnership would be welcomed only if it "did not retard the campaign against the colonial system". The colonials sought every opportunity to wreak havoc within the Party. Already, the PUP was divided between a faction led by Richardson and Goldson, who advocated accepting the offer, and Price, who refused to compromise himself.

Party dissension and colonial mind games

This party dispute came to a head in the summer of 1956, in which ten central committee members left the Party, including Richardson and Phillip Goldson. A majority in the elected government, they nonetheless felt threatened by the overwhelming support in the street for Price, who controlled the rank and file through his connection with the GWU. Price was thereafter undisputed leader of the party, and went unchallenged for nearly four decades as such. As a minor result of the resignations, the GWU lost its popularity and this signaled the end of Labour's attempt to control the country's movement. The prodigal members had an equally hard time of it: their new party, in elections of March 1957

British Honduras legislative election, 1957

A legislative election was held in British Honduras on March 20, 1957.The ruling People's United Party won all nine seats contested. This was the first of two occasions they would sweep the House....

, managed just 17% of voter popularity and overall voter turnout dropped to 63%.

A pleased colonial government now turned up the heat full blast on George Price. They dismissed him from the Executive Council on the old charge of selling out to Guatemala, giving his opponents something to work with; although Belizeans still debate the relationship between Price and Guatemala, the charges were not immediately serious. In March 1958, a protracted charge of sedition

Sedition

In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...

was laid on him for supposedly uncomplimentary remarks about the possible reception of Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

in Belize. A jury acquitted him and the charges backfired. Moreover, the PUP achieved its greatest electoral dominance in 1961 elections

British Honduras legislative election, 1961

General elections were held in British Honduras on 26 March 1961. They were the first following a constitutional review, which had increased the number of elected seats from 9 to 18, whilst a further five members would be appointed by the Governor and two would be officials. The result was a...

, sweeping all eighteen seats from the hapless National Independence Party

National Independence Party (Belize)

The National Independence Party of Belize was a merger of two Belizean political parties that effectively served as the chief opposition party in Belize for practically all of its existence. It was formed in July 1958 and dissolved as part of the formation of the new United Democratic Party in...

Working toward self-government

In contrast with its early years of mass action against the colonial order, the PUP of the 1960s was more focused on change from within. In October 1961, Hurricane Hattie

Hurricane Hattie

Hurricane Hattie was the deadliest tropical cyclone of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the strongest, reaching a peak intensity equivalent to Category 5 hurricane intensity...

arrived on the shores of Belize City, causing destruction in the de facto capital. The PUP immediately began calling for the moving of the capital to higher ground, to escape flooding. This demand led to the construction of Belize's current capital, Belmopan

Belmopan

Belmopan , estimated population 20,000 is the capital city of Belize.Belmopan is located at , at an altitude of 76 metres above sea level. Belmopan was constructed just to the east of Belize River, inland from the former capital, the port of Belize City, after that city's near destruction by...

, later in the decade, as well as the village of Hattieville

Hattieville

Hattieville, sometimes also known as Hattieville Village, is a town in the Belize District of the nation of Belize. It is located at 17N 88W, at an elevation of 196 feet above mean sea level, and has a population of about 1,300 people...

, 16 miles from the city, to host the hurricane's evacuees. It also showed that George Price's vision for the country was national, rather than insular.

As of 1959, a women's arm of the Party, the United Women's Group (UWG), was created under Gwendolyn Lizarraga, later Belize's first female Minister; its task was to mobilize Belize's women to eradicate poor conditions in housing and urban development. Its efforts were mixed at best and illustrate the PUP's unwillingness to allow women much room in the march to development, preferring them to depend on their male counterparts in government.

On January 1, 1963, Belize achieved internal self-government, the last step before full independence

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

. All matters outside of foreign affairs and national defense would now be the province of the government. The British also retained the public service, including bureaucrats and police, and internal security, meaning that loyalty was a higher priority than development and forcing Price to actively recruit the middle class to the PUP's side.

The PUP in this era presided over the shift from forestry to agriculture, the rise of the sugar industry, reforms to labour laws, land distribution, infrastructural development and increased social services contributing to a general improvement in the standard of living.

The 1970s and early 1980s: new challenges

As the PUP moved into the 1970s, it controlled the nation of Belize like never before. It had not lost an election, general or municipal, ever, and enjoyed the confidence of the Belizean people. But new challenges arose that would ultimately lessen Belizeans' confidence in the PUP.

UBAD and PAC

In 1968, students began returning from abroad with a serious sense of the kind of development Belize needed to stay afloat in the modern world. Evan X Hyde

Evan X Hyde

Evan Anthony Hyde is a writer and journalist. He publishes and writes for the nation's largest newspaper, the Amandala, as well as oversee its subsidiaries, KREM Radio and Krem Television...

, a young black middle-class Creole

Creole peoples

, graduated Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, a predominantly white school, with an A.B.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

in English

English studies

English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...

in 1968. He formed the United Black Association for Development (UBAD)

United Black Association for Development (UBAD)

United Black Association for Development was a cultural and political party established in Belize in February 1969 and based on traditional Black Power tenets...

in early 1969 and began seriously attacking the PUP's economic and social policies, equating them with neo-colonialism and denouncing them as "politricks". He joined trained lawyers Said Musa

Said Musa

Said Wilbert Musa is a Belizean lawyer and politician. He was the Prime Minister of Belize from August 28, 1998 to February 8, 2008.-Early life and education:Said Musa was born in San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize...

and Assad Shoman in the formation of their People's Action Committee (PAC), which was against "the North Atlantic economic domination (of Belize)" (Shoman) and in the analogue movement RAM (Revolutionary Action Movement) formed by a fusion of the two. Though none of these movements lasted for very long, they all left serious impressions on the psyche of the PUP, which prided itself on being the party of the people. The PUP first tried to silence them, stripping the latter of their jobs and laying charges of sedition, housebreaking and robbery on the former, all of which he dodged. When that did not work, they tried coopting them: Shoman and Musa later played prominent roles in the PUP and Hyde was thereafter relatively quiet in defence of or opposition to them. However, the party was shown to be indecisive in its handling of the two groups.

The UDP and dwindling fortunes

At the formation of the United Democratic Party

United Democratic Party (Belize)

, a combination of the NIP, PDM and Liberal oppositions, it was thought that they could not present a worthy challenge to the ruling party. What happened next proved otherwise. The UDP proceeded, under Dean Lindo, to come within 18 votes of throwing the 18 seat Belize House of Representatives into deadlock, seized control of the Belize City Council from the PUP (for the first time in two decades) and winning municipal votes in 1975, 1977 and 1978. While Belizeans still wanted independence, it was felt that the UDP needed an opportunity to prove themselves in government. The results of the 1979 elections

Belize legislative election, 1979

General elections were held in Belize on 21 November 1979. The result was a victory for the ruling People's United Party, which won 13 of the 18 seats. Voter turnout was 89.9%.-Background:...

showed that the UDP had not quite passed that test, particularly because of their demands for a delayed independence due to Guatemala's claim

Guatemalan claim to Belizean territory

The Belizean-Guatemalan territorial dispute is an unresolved binational territorial dispute between the states of Belize and Guatemala, neighbours in Central America...

to Belize remaining unsettled. While the PUP eventually fended off this initial UDP challenge, their policy on Guatemala and independence at any cost would prove the party's undoing.

Heads of (Dis)Agreement and the PUP's decline

On January 30, 1981, Premier Price presented to the house a paper with suggestions for the new constitution to come into effect on the eve of independence, which the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

maintained had to be no later than the end of 1981 when it supported Belize in a resolution at its 1980 meeting. On March 11, Price, Assad Shoman and other Belizean negotiators returned with a series of proposals they called the "Heads of Agreement", though nothing had actually been agreed on. The sixteen clauses called for Belize to make tough choices in order for the claim to be dropped, but Belizeans rebelled and set the country afire, forcing a state of emergency

State of emergency

. It was under this state of emergency that Belize gained independence on September 21, 1981, a hollow victory that came at the price of losing Belizeans' trust. The PUP, hanging on for three more years despite economic losses and general discontent, finally called a general election for December 1984, and lost, 21-7, to the UDP. In many ways, it was the end of an era.

Reform and resurgence

The PUP for much of the 1980s was heavily divided and out of ideas, characterized by intra-party fights such as the 1983 national convention in which Said Musa

Said Musa

challenged Louis Sylvester, or occasional disputes between the so-called "left wing" of Shoman and Musa and the "right wing" of Sylvester, Ralph Fonseca

Ralph Fonseca

Ralph Henry Fonseca is a Belizean politician and a member of the People's United Party.- Political history :In 1984, he became a candidate for the House of Representatives in Queen's Square, running against attorney and city councillor Dean Barrow...

and persons considered to be the chief financiers of the PUP. In 1986, Musa won the chairmanship position and began recruiting new faces into the party. The immediate result of this was improvement in municipal elections in the late 1980s and a close general election victory in 1989. In its first post-independence term the PUP hardly shied away from the same economic policy the UDP had utilized, involving economic growth by improving services. An early election in 1993 cost the PUP a chance to stay in power; a victorious alliance of the UDP and National Alliance for Belizean Rights forced the PUP to become the opposition party for a second time. The PUP used the time to do some internal repairs at national conventions in May 1994 and November 1996, which saw the resignation of George Price as party leader; Said Musa defeated Florencio Marin Sr. in the ensuing convention to name a new leader. After winning municipal votes in 1996 and 1997 and the general elections in 1998

Belize legislative election, 1998

General elections were held in Belize on 27 August 1998. The result was a victory for the People's United Party, which won 26 of the 29 seats and Said Musa was elected as Prime Minister for the first time...

, the PUP were riding high once again.

The PUP today

The PUP led Belize to eight consecutive years of growth, despite serious external and internal shocks to the traditional and non-traditional bases of the economy.

In 2004 several Ministers resigned from Cabinet citing inability to work within the current system. The party wooed them back almost immediately, but aftershocks from this incident continue to affect the party.

Belizeans today are more skeptical of the party than ever before due to constant accusations of corruption which it says are falsified. The 2005 protests in Belize

2005 Belize unrest

The 2005 protests in Belize are two separate but related incidents of civil unrest in the Central American nation, occurring in January and April.- January 2005 budget protests :...

highlighted some of these claims.

Following the PUP's defeat in the 2008 election, Musa and Fonesca announced that they were resigning from their leadership positions. Musa said that the PUP needed to "renew itself from the top."

On March 30, 2008, Johnny Briceño was elected as the leader of the PUP at a party convention in Belmopan

Belmopan

, succeeding Musa. He defeated Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca

, who was considered to be the candidate preferred by the party establishment, receiving 330 votes against 310 for Fonseca.

A special convention was called for April 13, 2008 in Briceño's stronghold of Orange Walk.

On October 17, 2010, the PUP held their national convention in Dangriga in which Hon. John Briceno was endorsed as the Party Leader. Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, a former party chair, was elected the PUP's (and Belize's) first ever female deputy leader.

On October 20, 2011, the Hon. Francis Fonseca was endorsed at a meeting of the party's National Executive in Belize City as the new PUP leader following the resignation of Hon. John Briceno on October 7. Hon. Francis Fonseca was formally endorsed as Party Leader of the People's United Party at a special convention on October 29, 2011.

PUP media

Newspaper: The Belize Times
The Belize Times
The Belize Times is a Belizean newspaper published once a week and the official organ of the People's United Party. It was established in 1956 and sells for BZ$1.00.Its offices are located at the PUP's Belize City headquarters at 3 Queen Street, Belize City...

published every week at party headquarters, Editor: Alberto Vellos
Radio: Positive Vibes Radio
Positive Vibes FM
Positive Vibes FM is a private radio station in Belize and the radio arm of the Opposition People's United Party.- Conversion to Positive Vibes :...

90.5 and 102.9 FM (replacing FM 2000
FM 2000
FM 2000 was a Belizean radio station which operated from 1994 to 2006 in Belize City, Belize and was owned by Gerald Garbutt. Its primary signal was 90.5 FM and secondary signal 102.9 FM.-History:...

) Manager: Gerald Garbutt

Trivia

George Price is usually referred to as "Father of the Nation" by PUP supporters for leading Belize to independence.
Released a CD compilation of campaign songs in the 2003 elections, a first in Belize. The CD, "Go PUP", features the immensely popular "Welcome to the Party" by Belizean punta artist Supa G, sung in various local dialects as well as English.
Lost the 1993 elections despite polling more votes overall than the UDP. The PUP has only been outpolled in popular votes twice, in 1984 and 2008.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.