Cayo North

Cayo North
Constituency for the Belize House of Representatives
District	Cayo
Electorate	6,598 (2015)
Major settlements	San Ignacio (part), Bullet Tree Falls
Current constituency
Created	1961
Party	United Democratic Party
Area Representative	Omar Figueroa

Cayo North is an electoral constituency in the Cayo District represented in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belize since 2015 by Omar Figueroa of the United Democratic Party.

Profile

The Cayo North constituency was created for the 1961 general election as part of a major nationwide redistricting. The constituency is based in the northwestern corner of Cayo District.^[1] It includes the southern part of San Ignacio as well as the villages of Bullet Tree Falls and Paslow Falls.^[2]

Joseph Mahmud of the People's United Party, who was elected in the 2012 election, unexpectedly resigned in November 2014.^[3] A by-election was held on 5 January 2015 to elect Mahmud's successor. The by-election was only the third in Belize since independence, preceded by by-elections in Freetown (January 1993) and Cayo South (October 2003).^[3][4] Candidate nominations closed on 15 December 2014 with PUP nominee Richard Harrison and UDP nominee Omar Figueroa qualifying. No third party candidates appeared on the ballot.^[5] Figueroa won the by-election by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, increasing the UDP's overall majority in the Belize House.^[6]

Area Representatives

Election		Area Representative[7]	Party
	1961	Hector Silva	PUP
	1974	Joseph Andrews	UDP
	1979	Assad Shoman	PUP
	1984	Salvador Fernandez	UDP
	1998	Ainslie Leslie	PUP
	2008	Salvador Fernandez	UDP
	2012	Joseph Mahmud	PUP
	2015 by-election	Omar Figueroa	UDP

Elections

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
2015 general election [8] Electorate: 6,940 Turnout: 5,234 (75.42%) +13.8		UDP hold Majority: 159 (3.04%) -29.47		Omar Figueroa	UDP	2,674	51.09	-14.60
				Michel Chebat	PUP	2,515	48.05	+14.87
January 2015 by-election [3][9][6] Electorate: 6,598 Turnout: 4,063 (61.6%) −13.1		UDP gain from PUP Majority: 1,321 (32.51%) +23.95		Omar Figueroa	UDP	2,669	65.69	+22.92
				Richard Harrison	PUP	1,348	33.18	−18.15
2012 general election [10] Electorate: 6,213 Turnout: 4,641 (74.7%) −3.3		PUP gain from UDP Majority: 397 (8.56%) −19.85		Joseph Mahmud	PUP	2,382	51.33	+17.27
				Salvador Fernandez	UDP	1,985	42.77	−19.7
				Marcel Bedran	Independent	191	4.12	-
2008 general election [11] Electorate: 5,213 Turnout: 4,066 (78.0%) −4.9		UDP gain from PUP Majority: 1,155 (28.41%) +24.7		Salvador Fernandez	UDP	2,540	62.47	+14.76
				Otto Coleman	PUP	1,385	34.06	−17.36
				Alden McDougall	NRP	100	2.46	-
2003 general election [12] Electorate: 6,842 Turnout: 5,673 (82.9%) −10.12		PUP hold Majority: 210 (3.71%) +1.93		Ainslie Leslie	PUP	2,917	51.42	+1.2
				Dean Williams	UDP	2,707	47.71	−0.73
1998 general election [13] Electorate: 5,045 Turnout: 4,693 (93.02%) +17.23		PUP gain from UDP Majority: 84 (1.78%) +1.38		Ainslie Leslie	PUP	2,357	50.22	+0.42
				Salvador Fernandez	UDP	2,273	48.44	−1.76
				Nazim Elias Juan	Independent	32	0.68	-
1993 general election [14][15] Electorate: 4,964 Turnout: 3,762 (75.79%) −2.88		UDP hold Majority: 18 (0.4%) −7.7		Salvador Fernandez	UDP	1,890	50.2	−2.7
				Ainslie Leslie	PUP	1,872	49.8	+5.0
1989 general election [16][17] Electorate: 3,751 Turnout: 2,951 (78.67%) −0.96		UDP hold Majority: 241 (8.1%) −10.5		Salvador Fernandez	UDP	1,562	52.9	−6.0
				Ismael Garcia	PUP	1,321	44.8	+4.5
1984 general election [18][19] Electorate: 2,711 Turnout: 2,159 (79.63%) −12.38		UDP gain from PUP Majority: 402 (18.6%) +14.9		Salvador Fernandez	UDP	1,271	58.9	+11.29
				Orlando Harrison	PUP	869	40.3	−11.1
1979 general election [20] Electorate: 4,107 Turnout: 3,779 (92.01%) +14.02		PUP gain from UDP Majority: 3.7% (+0.3)		Assad Shoman	PUP		51.4	+4.8
				Joseph Andrews	UDP		47.7	−2.3
1974 general election [21] Electorate: 2,621 Turnout: 2,044 (77.99%) +2.95		UDP gain from PUP Majority: 3.4% (+3.3)		Joseph Andrews	UDP		50.0	-
				Assad Shoman	PUP		46.6	−2.4
1969 general election [22] Electorate: 1,695 Turnout: 1,272 (75.04%) +3.83		PUP hold Majority: 0.1% (−25.5)		Hector Silva	PUP		49.0	−12.9
				Joseph Andrews	NIP		48.9	+12.6
1965 general election [23] Electorate: 1,886 Turnout: 1,343 (71.21%) −9.44		PUP hold Majority: 25.6% (−17.9)		Hector Silva	PUP		61.9	−8.6
				Theodocio Ochoa	NIP		36.3	-
1961 general election [24] Electorate: 1,292 Turnout: 1,042 (80.65%) n/a		PUP win Majority: 43.5% (n/a)		Hector Silva	PUP		70.5	-
				Manuel Figueroa	CDP		16.3	-

References

1. Belize election maps, Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
2. Cayo North, Elections and Boundaries Department, Government of Belize.
3. "Parliamentarian Resigns; Bi-election to be held in Cayo North on January 5th", The San Pedro Sun, 25 November 2014. (accessed 26 November 2014)
4. Result of By-election 2003, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 26 November 2014)
5. REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT CHAPTER 9 NOTICE THAT A POLL WILL BE TAKEN The Electoral Division of CAYO NORTH], Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 December 2014)
6. "Dr Omar Figueroa elected as new Area Rep for Cayo North", The San Pedro Sun, 6 January 2015. (accessed 6 January 2015)
7. Elections Results, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
8. Official Results: General Election, Elections and Boundaries Department, 6 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
9. Jones, Patrick E. "By-election Watch: Omar versus Richard in Cayo North", Breaking Belize News, 28 November 2014. (accessed 3 December 2014)
10. GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS 2012, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
11. 2008 General Elections Final Results , Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
12. 2003 General Elections final results, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
13. General Elections 1998, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
14. General Elections 1993, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
15. 1993 Parliamentary Elections, Political Database of the Americas. (accessed 22 November 2014)
16. General Elections 1989, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
17. 1989 Parliamentary Elections, Political Database of the Americas. (accessed 22 November 2014)
18. General Elections 1984, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
19. 1984 Parliamentary Elections, Political Database of the Americas. (accessed 22 November 2014)
20. General Elections 1979, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
21. General Elections 1974, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
22. General Elections 1969, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
23. General Elections 1965, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)
24. General Elections 1961, Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission. (accessed 19 November 2014)