Chaos at UDP National Party Council meeting – Shyne Barrow’s leadership, rather than Toledo by-elections take center stage

Published by [email protected] at August 4, 2024

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Posted: Sunday, August 4, 2024. 8:56 am CST.

By Hugh O’Brien: On Saturday, August 3rd, Leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) Moses ‘Shyne’ Barrow, called for a National Party Council (NPC) meeting to reflect, a post-mortem of sorts, on the results of the Toledo East by-election which was held on July 17th. The UDP lost that by-election by a landslide and Saturday’s NPC meeting was to focus on reforms necessary to improve the performance of the UDP, particularly for the upcoming general elections. However, within the last two (2) weeks or so leading up to the NPC meeting, supporters of Tracy Panton began an “I’m with her” campaign calling for the removal of Shyne Barrow as the current leader and replacing him with Tracy Panton. Meanwhile supporters of Shyne Barrow hunkered down, claiming that the majority of standard bearers support Barrow, and were prepared to battle come NPC meeting day.

National Party Council meeting time was 2:00 pm, the atmosphere was politically charged, banners in support of Shyne and Tracy were brought out, and the stage was set for a showdown. Chairman Michael Peyrefitte called the meeting to order and shortly after the meeting began, shouting from opposing factions began, insults were hurled, attempts to present motions to the floor were futile, and soon chaos erupted.

Chairman Michael Peyrefitte decided he would not chair a meeting with such a charged and chaotic ambience; he ended the meeting and left shortly after. Deputy Chairman and veteran UDP stalwart Alberto August told News 7 that Saturday’s NPC meeting was a learning experience for him and that the meeting will have to be rescheduled. August told me on Friday that the tensions for leadership in the UDP is nothing new for political parties in Belize, and that the PUP itself has gone through its own extent of turmoil in the battle for leadership following the retirement, particularly of Said Musa, in 2008.

Shortly after the chaos at the NPC meeting, Tracy Panton with the declared support of Patrick Faber, Beverly Williams, John Saldivar and others, held an impromptu press conference at the UDP headquarters in Belize City. Panton informed the media that she has the support of 16 constituencies and signatures from 220 delegates in 18 constituencies, that this is enough to trigger a national convention and that she plans to submit this to Chairman Peyrefitte on Monday. Tracy Panton was clear in her motive – she intends to offer herself as leader at this convention whenever it is called.

Inquiring minds want to know – Is a change in UDP leadership via a recall mechanism possible at this time? While Panton and her supporters believe so and will argue that this is democracy at its best, supporters of Shyne Barrow say that the national convention voted unanimously to re-elect him on August 13, 2023, and further decided that there would be no more leadership conventions until after the next general elections. Barrow’s supporters also contend that he continues to enjoy the support of a majority of standard bearers in the party, and nothing has changed since the national convention elected him twice.

The massive defeat of the UDP in Toledo East has clearly fueled the current tensions in the UDP. Should Shyne Barrow as the leader be blamed thereby justifying the current efforts to remove him, or should those who currently are lining up behind Tracy Panton for leadership be held accountable for not being good team players and not doing their share to at least try to reduce the margins that the UDP lost in Toledo East?

If the tensions end up giving rise to a stronger and more united UDP, this is good for Belize as it means that Belize will have a much stronger opposition, and in so doing strengthen our democracy and help to keep the PUP and unperforming or rogue Ministers in check.

As a very nationalistic Belizean, I will (and advise all Belizeans to) continue paying attention as the saga unfolds and the UDP finds a settling point, an equilibrium, in our much needed democracy!

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