On Sunday, August 10, 2026, the People’s United Party (PUP) held its highly anticipated Corozal Municipal Convention to select a mayoral candidate for upcoming local elections, delivering a decisive victory for three-time incumbent Rigoberto Vellos while laying bare deep, long-simmering divisions within the district’s party ranks.
Vellos, the party’s established favorite, defeated first-time candidate Shajarie Rogers by a staggering 624-vote margin, racking up 1,799 votes to Rogers’ 1,175, among the 3,425 registered PUP voters who turned out to cast ballots. The win not only cemented Vellos’ place as the party’s official mayoral nominee but also dealt a significant blow to Rogers’ campaign, which had received high-profile backing from Corozal Bay Area Representative Thea Garcia-Ramirez.
What was intended as a routine candidate selection process quickly devolved into a public display of internal friction, with heated exchanges, raised tempers, and open confrontation between supporters of the two rival camps. For Vellos, the contested convention was an unnecessary disruption from the start. The three-term incumbent argued that his proven track record of delivering for Corozal should have spared the party from a public intra-party battle, and he framed the lopsided voter turnout as a validation of his years of work.
“A hard one. A hard battle. Sometimes you get tested to the extreme and this was one time we were taken to the extreme,” Vellos told reporters following his win. “They know I have worked extremely hard for them, hence the reason why they did not agree to a convention. We went into a convention that was not necessary and I hope that after this they can join me, my team and I to work together. It is time for us to rebuild our own party and as young leaders people expect that from us. I am happy, a bit emotional. But it all comes with victory.”
Rogers, who entered voting day confident in her organized campaign and the political support of Garcia-Ramirez, struck a conciliatory tone after the results were finalized. She noted that Garcia-Ramirez had publicly committed to working with whichever candidate emerged victorious, a position Garcia-Ramirez reaffirmed to reporters as she left the voting venue, despite loud taunting chants from Vellos supporters surrounding her.
“Honorable Thea has a right. She is a voter in Corozal Bay and at the end of the day, she had also given you guys an interview where she rightly stated that she will work with any team. So, I believe that at the end of the day she will work with any team that wins,” Rogers said prior to the result.
When asked about the hostile crowd energy surrounding her after the result, Garcia-Ramirez deflected tension, emphasizing her unwavering loyalty to the PUP. “All I hear is PUP Paul,” she told reporter Paul Lopez of News Five.
PUP national chairman Henry Charles Usher framed the open contest as a healthy exercise in intra-party democracy, arguing that the convention would strengthen the party ahead of the general municipal elections. He acknowledged that the divide would need intentional repair, but emphasized that unification would be the party’s immediate priority.
“Well I think it is always good for the people to decide who they want to represent them. I think conventions are good, they are healthy. You know you will have this what you would call coming together after the convention. You have to come together and that is what we will do,” Usher stated.
In a secondary development that underscored the depth of the split, sitting Councilor Leslie Rodriguez abandoned Vellos’ slate to run alongside Rogers, a gamble that failed to pay off. Vellos’ replacement candidate Hugo Gonzalez went on to win the council seat by a clear margin.
While Team Rogers has formally conceded and pledged to collaborate with Vellos’ team ahead of the upcoming elections, political observers note that repairing fractured relationships and rebuilding trust between the rival PUP factions will be a months-long process. With municipal elections fast approaching, the PUP’s ability to unify its Corozal base could ultimately determine whether the party holds the mayoral seat in the upcoming general vote. This report was compiled from a broadcast transcript by News Five’s Paul Lopez.