Belizean legislative election, 2008

Belizean general election, 2008

2003 ← 7 February 2008 → 2012

All 31 seats in the Belize House of Representatives (including two new seats)   First party Second party   Leader Dean Barrow Said Musa Party UDP PUP Leader since 1998 1996 Leader's seat Queen's Square Fort George Last election 7 seats 22 seats Seats before 8 seats 21 seats Seats won 25 seats 6 seats Seat change 17 15 Popular vote 66,203 47,624 Percentage 56.61% 40.72% Swing 17.2 12.44

Prime Minister before election Said Musa PUP Subsequent Prime Minister Dean Barrow UDP

Said Musa
PUP

Dean Barrow
UDP

A legislative election was held in the nation of Belize on February 7, 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.

A national referendum had also been called to determine the views of Belizeans on an elected Senate.

In August 2003 Cayo South Area Rep. Agripino Cawich of the PUP died, triggering a by-election in the constituency, only the second held in Belize since independence. The by-election was won by the UDP's John Saldivar, who had lost to Cawich in the general election earlier in 2003. Saldivar's win flipped the constituency to the UDP column and increased the party's caucus to eight for the remainder of the term.

The Society for the Promotion of Education and Research (SPEAR) released the results of an opinion poll conducted in conjunction with SJC's Belizean Studies Centre in October 2005. In an election 49% of voters would consider voting for a third party; between the current parties 34.5% said they would vote for the PUP and the rest for the UDP.

As a followup, SPEAR conducted a second poll released on October 31, 2006 (). When asked who they would vote for, 32% said UDP, 11.8% PUP and 22% a third party. Smaller numbers either said they would not vote at all or declined to say who they would vote for. The nation's largest newspaper, the Amandala, headlined that more than half of Belizeans had rejected the PUP and UDP by either supporting a third party or declining to vote; this notion was soundly rejected by the UDP in particular and resulted in back and forth editorial responses in the Amandala and the UDP's Guardian in November, with the UDP charging that publisher Evan X Hyde was playing into the PUP's hands by supporting third parties openly instead of the UDP, and Amandala reiterating that its policy was of Belizeans First and that neither party had thoroughly considered the welfare of "roots" Belizeans since Independence. In March 2007, the University of Belize and Saint John's College Junior College's Belizean Studies Centre conducted a one-weekend poll of 430 randomly selected persons seeking opinions on the 2008 elections. The poll was supervised by UB Registrar Dr. Roy Young and BSC's Yasmine Andrews. On the question of approval of party leaders, the UDP's Dean Barrow led all contestants with 55.7% approval; sitting Prime Minister Said Musa scored 14.9%, while independent leaders rated below that. Results by party were similar, with the UDP scoring 55.5%, the PUP 16% and independents scores ranging from 2 to 9%.

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