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Belize's 6 districts are politically divided into 31 constituencies. Each constituency sends one representative to Belize's House of Representatives for 5-year terms. This election is known as the General Election. Each person (who is eligible to vote) votes for the candidate they would want to represent their constituency in Central Government.
Each political party nominates a candidate or Standard Bearer for each constituency. The winner becomes the Area Representative of the constituency, while the loser generally remains the Standard Bearer of that constituency for his/her political party.
Belize's constituencies are divided in such a way that their voting population be as equal as possible to each other, ensuring, theoretically, that resources are equally shared among the country's citizens, as required by the Constitution. After the 2003 General Elections, two additional constituencies were created from territory of existing constituencies in order to further ensure the equality of the voting populations among the constituencies.
In Belize's 2003 General Elections, 29 constituencies voted in their Area Representatives for Belize's House of Representatives. Since then it was noted that the difference in voting populations between the most and least populous constituencies was rather large (Cayo South then had 8,000 voters compared to Pickstock's 1000+). In 2004 a Task Force was appointed by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to study the matter. Their Final Report was submitted in October 2004. It is noted that the Elections and Boundaries Department has the right to occasionally reassess constituencies, usually after the latest census or population estimate.
Among several things that their report suggested, the expansion of the Cayo District's number of constituencies to six (from four) had the most impact. Later the following year (2005) the law was passed to create two additional constituencies within the boundaries of Cayo. The newly created constituencies are Belmopan, containing the capital city of that name, and Cayo North East, centered on Spanish Lookout.
These new constituencies held their first-ever election during the General Election in 2008.
Below are the Districts and their respective constituencies:
Below is a list of the voting population by constituency as of March 2015, sorted out by districts for ease of reference.
Note that these populations are for Belizean citizens who are eligible to vote and does not represent actual population. As of March 2015 the voting population of Belize is estimated at 148,026 while the total population is estimated at 301,300.
The Voter Age Population (VAP), i.e. all persons over the age of eighteen, is 161,677, or 53.66% of the total population. Of these, more than 91 percent are actually registered. Males slightly outnumber females in the population, though the gap is noticeable in the larger urban areas such as Belize City, home to 10 constituencies.
District | Constituency | Total | Nationwide Rank | District Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Belize | Albert | 3072 | 30th | 12th |
Belize Rural Central | 4511 | 21st | 4th | |
Belize Rural North | 4578 | 20th | 3rd | |
Belize Rural South | 5159 | 13th | 1st | |
Caribbean Shores | 4291 | 23rd | 5th | |
Collet | 3637 | 26th | 8th | |
Fort George | 3047 | 31st | 13th | |
Freetown | 3452 | 27th | 9th | |
Lake Independence | 4925 | 18th | 2nd | |
Mesopotamia | 3170 | 28th | 10th | |
Pickstock | 3166 | 29th | 11th | |
Port Loyola | 3890 | 24th | 6th | |
Queen's Square | 3862 | 25th | 7th | |
Cayo | Belmopan | 5667 | 5th | 2nd |
Cayo Central | 5923 | 3rd | 1st | |
Cayo North | 5015 | 17th | 5th | |
Cayo North East | 4413 | 22nd | 6th | |
Cayo South | 5468 | 8th | 4th | |
Cayo West | 5378 | 10th | 3rd | |
Corozal | Corozal Bay | 5100 | 16th | 3rd |
Corozal North | 5108 | 15th | 2nd | |
Corozal South East | 5190 | 12th | 1st | |
Corozal South West | 4869 | 19th | 4th | |
Orange Walk | Orange Walk Central | 5727 | 4th | 2nd |
Orange Walk East | 5443 | 9th | 4th | |
Orange Walk North | 6011 | 2nd | 1st | |
Orange Walk South | 5575 | 6th | 3rd | |
Stann Creek | Dangriga | 5114 | 14th | 2nd |
Stann Creek West | 6470 | 1st | 1st | |
Toledo | Toledo East | 5473 | 7th | 1st |
Toledo West | 5324 | 11th | 2nd | |
National | 31 | 148,026 | Avg. Voters per constituency | 4775 |
Below is the chronological order for the creation of Belize's current constituencies.
The Belize Defence Force (BDF) is the military of Belize, and is responsible for protecting the sovereignty of the country. The BDF is under the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security, which is currently headed by Hon. Florencio Marin Jr.; the BDF itself is commanded by Brigadier General Azariel Loria. In 2012, the Belizean government spent about $17 million on the military, constituting 1.08% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Dangriga, formerly known as Stann Creek Town, is a town in southern Belize, located on the Caribbean coast at the mouth of the North Stann Creek River. It is the capital of Belize's Stann Creek District. Dangriga is served by the Dangriga Airport. Commonly known as the "culture capital of Belize" due to its influence on punta music and other forms of Garifuna culture, Dangriga is the largest settlement in southern Belize.
Stann Creek District is a district in the south east region of Belize. According to the 2010 census, the district had a population of 32,166 people. Its capital is the town of Dangriga, formerly known as "Stann Creek Town." Stann comes from "stanns," or safe havens used by colonialists coming from the "old world" to the "new world."
Cayo District is a district located in the west part of Belize. It is the most extensive, second-most populous and third-most densely populated of the six districts of Belize. The district's capital is the town of San Ignacio.
Belize is divided into six districts, those six are, Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize (District) Cayo, Stann Creek, and Toledo
Elections in Belize are the duly held elections held at various levels of government in the nation of Belize.
The House of Representatives of Belize is the lower chamber of the National Assembly, the other being the Senate. It was created under the 1981 constitution. Members are commonly called "Area Representatives".
General elections were held in Belize on 5 March 2003. Belizeans elected 29 members to the House of Representatives for a term of five years. The result was a victory for the ruling People's United Party (PUP), which won 22 of the 29 seats.
General elections were held in Belize on 30 June 1993. Although the People's United Party received the most votes, the United Democratic Party–National Alliance for Belizean Rights alliance won the most seats. Voter turnout was 72.1%.
The Belize Elections and Boundaries Department is the hands-on administrator of Belizean electoral politics. It was established in 1989 as a subordinate to the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
The Belize Premier Football League (BPFL) (Caribbean Motors Cup) was the premier division of association football in Belize sanctioned by the Football Federation of Belize. The league disbanded in 2011 after the merger with the Super League of Belize to create a new top league in Belize, the Premier League of Belize.
General elections were held in Belize on 7 February 2008. Beginning with this election, Belizeans elected 31 members to the House of Representatives of Belize instead of 29. In what was considered an upset, the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) won the election with 25 out of 31 seats; the ruling People's United Party won six.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to Belize:
The Supreme Court of Judicature of Belize is one of three types of courts in Belize, the lower ones being the Magistrate's Courts and the Court of Appeal. It is a court of original jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases as well as an appellate court. It is governed by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (SCJA).
General elections were held in Belize on 7 March 2012 to elect all 31 members of the Belize House of Representatives as well as offices in the various local governments. The election was run by the Elections and Boundaries Commission's Elections and Boundaries Department. Dean Barrow and his United Democratic Party (UDP) were re-elected, but lost eight seats to the opposition People's United Party (PUP) to maintain a slim 17-14 majority in the Belize House. The upper house of the Belize National Assembly, the Senate, was appointed after the election by the UDP-led government in accordance with the Constitution of Belize.
General elections were held in Belize on 4 November 2015 to elect members of the House of Representatives. On 28 September 2015 Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced that he had advised the Governor-General to dissolve the National Assembly and to fix Wednesday 4 November 2015 as the date for the next general elections.
Cayo South is an electoral constituency in the Cayo District represented in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belize since 2012 by Julius Espat of the People's United Party.
Municipal elections were held in Belize on 7 March 2018. Voters elected a total 67 representatives. This includes a mayor in each of the nine communities, 42 town councils and 16 city councillors. The elections saw the People's United Party approach local parity with the ruling United Democratic Party. In 2015, the UDP won 62 out of the 67 seats nationwide, with the opposition People's United Party won the remaining seats. In 2018, the UDP won 41 seats, with the PUP picking up the remaining 26. The PUP gained complete council control of Belize City and Corozal Town, picked up a council seat in Dangriga, and regained complete control of the Orange Walk Town council. The Belize Progressive Party had 13 councillor candidates in three elections, and mayoral candidates in those three elections as well as in San Ignacio/Santa Elena. There were also seven independent candidates for mayor.