Constituencies of 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 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.

Division of constituencies

Belize's constituencies are divided in 31, 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. Coming out of January 2008, the most populous constituency had a voting population of 7,085 while the least populous constituency had a voting population of 3,195.

New 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. In 2004 a Task Force was appointed by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to study the matter. Their 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 had the most impact. Later the following year 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.

List of Belize's constituencies by district

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, 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.
DistrictConstituencyTotalNationwide RankDistrict Rank
BelizeAlbert307230th12th
Belize Rural Central451121st4th
Belize Rural North457820th3rd
Belize Rural South515913th1st
Caribbean Shores429123rd5th
Collet363726th8th
Fort George304731st13th
Freetown345227th9th
Lake Independence492518th2nd
Mesopotamia317028th10th
Pickstock316629th11th
Port Loyola389024th6th
Queen's Square386225th7th
CayoBelmopan56675th2nd
Cayo Central59233rd1st
Cayo North501517th5th
Cayo North East441322nd6th
Cayo South54688th4th
Cayo West537810th3rd
CorozalCorozal Bay510016th3rd
Corozal North510815th2nd
Corozal South East519012th1st
Corozal South West486919th4th
Orange WalkOrange Walk Central57274th2nd
Orange Walk East54439th4th
Orange Walk North60112nd1st
Orange Walk South55756th3rd
Stann CreekDangriga511414th2nd
Stann Creek West64701st1st
ToledoToledo East54737th1st
Toledo West532411th2nd
National31148,026Avg. Voters per constituency4775

Current Area Representatives

History

Below is the chronological order for the creation of Belize's current constituencies.