General elections will be held in Belize on 11 November 2020 to elect the 31 members of the House of Representatives.

According to the constitution of Belize, every five years the prime minister has the power vested in him or her to call general elections. The prime minister also has the power vested in him or her, to call the elections earlier if he or she chooses to do so and that has happened several times in the past. Most of the general elections that were held was between the two major political parties namely; the People’s United Party (PUP) the oldest political party in Belize and the United Democratic Party (UDP), a party that emerged out of three political parties in 1973.

Since Belize obtained its independence on September 21, 1981, this will be the ninth general election to be held. The UDP won in 1984, 1993, 2008, 2012 and 2015. The PUP won the elections in 1989, 1998 and 2003. The UDP won five out of the last eight general elections to the PUP, three. There were third parties that contested some of these general elections like VIP and BPP, but they had little effect on the outcome between the two major parties.

Lack of money, failure to organize their parties in the entire country and ‘vote-buying’ by the two major parties UDP and PUP, have made it difficult for the new parties to win seats in these general elections.