The Democratic and Agricultural Labour Party (DALP), more commonly referred to as the Christian Democratic Party (CDP), was a short-lived political party in

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

. It promoted

Christian Democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democrati ...

ideals.

History

Shortly after the formation of the National Independence Party in 1958, Member of the Belize House of Representatives Enrique Depaz claimed at a meeting held on 19 August that there was no opposition to the ruling

People's United Party The People's United Party (PUP) is one of two major political parties in Belize. It is currently the governing party of Belize after success in the 2020 Belizean general election, winning a majority of 26 seats out of 31 in the Belizean House ...

(PUP), who had just won

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

in March 1957. He proposed that a third party was necessary to provide real representation to Belizeans. His proposal was accepted and the DALP was formed under leader Nicholas Pollard. The party aimed to achieve self-government and promote social, economic and political development and was against entering groupings such as the

Federation of the West Indies A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...

or any proposed affiliation with

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

and/or the rest of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. By October 1960, the party felt it was time to reorganise. Pollard was demoted to Deputy Leader and replaced by MP Denbigh Jeffery. Joining them were Chairman Lionel Francis (previously of the NP), Secretary Mervyn Hulse and assistant Ernest Cain, Treasurer Clare Gill and National Organizer Robert Taylor. The party contested its first elections in 1961, but none of the eleven candidates it fielded won a seat. As a result the party fizzled and most of its members switched over to the National Independence Party. The party was briefly revived prior to the 1984 elections by Theodore Aranda to promote his new party based in Dangriga. However, it received only 708 votes (1.5%) and failed to win a seat.Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', pp105-106

References

{{Belizean political parties Political parties established in 1958 Defunct political parties in Belize Political parties disestablished in 1961 Christian democratic parties in North America 1958 establishments in British Honduras