Belize: Plan to oust Opposition Leader fails
The United Democratic Organization (UDP), the principal opposition party, has stated that efforts by a dissident group to oust party leader and Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow have failed.
This past weekend, a group led by the party’s vice chairman, Alberto August, announced plans for a recall convention to consider the removal of Barrow, who was elected leader in March of this year at a leadership convention with 256 votes to Tracy Panton’s 254.
August had given petitions holding the signatures of party members supporting the recall convention, and party leaders stated that the petitions would be reviewed prior to a decision being made regarding the convention’s future.
“When this recall is initiated, we hope that nothing unpleasant occurs. The UDP has endured enough, so we will meet with the delegates in private and strive to campaign with them. “That’s about it,” August concluded.
In a letter dated 25 October to August, however, the party observed that of the 200 signatures given as part of the efforts to recall Barrow, “43 persons requested that their signatures be retracted from the petition, four signatures of alternates who are not eligible to sign the petition.”
In addition, the UDP informed August that two of the petition’s signatories “are not qualified” to do so and that three signatures were from individuals “who are not UDP delegates.”
Michael Peyrefitte, head of the UDP, told media “I believe the letter speaks for itself.
43 individuals withdrew their support for the petition. About three people were not even on the list of delegates, and some of them had resigned or been replaced by alternates. Consequently, these individuals were ineligible to sign the recall petition.
“In addition to the fact that…many pages were covered with signatures for which there was no apparent justification,” the report states. Therefore, it was a blank sheet with the instructions “Print your name here and sign here,” but there was no indication on the page that it was for a recall petition. Peyrefitt continued, “These factors caused the secretariat to consider that the recall threshold had not been met for you to initiate the recall convention to remove the party leader.”
In June of last year, when the last recall petition was presented to the party, he insisted that severe criteria be applied.
“We did exactly the same thing. Peyrefitte stated that the process was clear and objective, and that they meticulously verified that each individual was a delegate. “There were no retractions in this case, and the threshold was met with their documentation clearly indicating that they were requesting a recall convention,” he added.
“There were sufficient disqualifications and withdrawals before the document was even presented by those requesting the recall. Before the document was submitted to headquarters last Friday, you had already received retractions.
“Therefore, there is no need to argue about whether or not you can sign and revoke your signature. Before it was even a live issue, people were already retracting their signatures. “Listen, if you pay attention to the back-and-forth between these two factions, if you will, I have stayed completely out of it, much to the chagrin of both sides, because I believe that as the chairman of the party, I must be objective,” he added.
Barrow had stated that he was confident in his ability to withstand efforts to depose him and that he would not rule out the possibility of lawmakers from the ruling People’s United Party (PUP) working together to carry out the plot to unseat him.
“There are external powers, PUP special interests, whose desire for a destabilised and split UDP will translate into a victory for the PUP in the next general elections,” he added.
