Things Heating Up...

Things are heating up, literally and politically. I spent last Sunday at a village observing the villagers voting for the new leaders on the Village Council. Fortunately, I accompanied Jacklin, my NAVCO cohort, to her family village and was able to sit under an awning used for candidates. I thought Las Vegas was hot, at least there, the 100+ degree heat had low humidity - it felt like walking in a sauna. Here, the temperature got to 112 degrees with 100% humidity - a steam room.

The election process is slightly different from village to village but mainly it involves the first hour for people to nominate their candidates for chairman and councillors. The list is placed on a board for all the voters to see. There is an official election officer overseeing the voting plus scrutineers who are responsible for identifying the villagers as legitimate residents and are registered to vote. Only voters can enter the voting building - outside, people line up while candidates hand out a list of the slate to the voters. At the end of the election day, the ballots are counted. The village council election schedule stretches from beginning of April until June. Once the leaders are set and sworn into office, each district has a general meeting of the villages to select a district board, then in turn the district boards select two representatives for the national board (which is my board level). The National Association of Village Councils (NAVCO) works with the districts, village councils to facilitate communication with the ministries of the Central Government.

In the past political parties were not involved in the village council elections - within the last years, the two major parties are heavily involved and bring to the villages party agendas and fierce rivalry. I observed three villages: one village had a contentious candidate that threatened people if he wasn't elected chairman; the second village was strongly politicized with the two parties present; and the third village appeared orderly and calm without the issue of parties.

Throughout the day I was sweating bullets and thought for sure that I was having a heat stroke. Keeping my body temperature down was all I did with wet rags, drinking water, and staying under the awning. Belizeans say that this extreme heat is a foreshadow of a bad hurricane season this year. I returned home to turn on the TV and the Denver station showed the spring snow storm and chilling temperatures - all I thought about was what a wonderful place to be now!