By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Nov. 6, 2015: A CARICOM Prime Minister this week bucked recent Caribbean political trends by winning another term in government unlike most incumbents across the region.
Belize Prime Minister Dean Oliver Barrow won an unprecedented third consecutive term in office in snap elections held Wednesday, November 4th in the small Central American nation.
With official results announced from 29 of the country’s 31 constituencies, Barrow’s United Democratic Party (UDP) won 19 while the main opposition People’s United Party (PUP) took 11. Results from one was still unreported.
Barrrow, 64, called it “a magnificent victory.” Some 70 percent of the country’s voters went to the polls in a country where the economy is highly dependent on tourism, as well as agricultural exports like sugar and bananas.
Barrow was sworn in on Thursday for another term by the Governor-General His Excellency Sir Colville Young.
Belize, home to 339,758 people, ranks 120 out of 189 on the World Bank’s Doing Business Ranks and getting credit and starting a business are identified as major issues affecting this rank. The GDP per capita is US$8,400.
