The race for Deputy Party Leader of the United Democratic Party is soon to enter the home stretch leg with the finish line set for February 17th. Two of the ruling UDP Ministers have entered their names contesting the seat of Deputy Party Leader, the second most powerful seat within the party’s hierarchy. It is widely known that the one that holds the DPL’s seat is the chosen one to also be the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Belize. Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Party Leader of the UDP Gaspar Vega has been challenged by Minister of Education Patrick Faber.
Both men have been canvasing the 31 constituencies and visiting with the delegates in efforts to garner support for their candidacy. Faber has publicly gone on record stating that he believes he can do a much better job at the post of Deputy Party Leader than the current holder. Well, in what has been dubbed as the game changer, Prime Minister of Belize and Leader of the UDP went on record stating that he does not support Minister of Education Patrick Faber. Barrow said and we quote, “I have said that while Minister Faber is, I think, an extremely well-qualified and able minister, while I think that he has a glorious leadership future in the United Democratic Party, at this time, and for this contest, I do not support him, end of story.” And that’s also the end of the quote.
Barrow went on to say that one of the major reasons for Faber not being his choice at this moment is because of Faber’s skin color and geographic location within Belize. Barrow says that the hierarchy of the Party must be equally distributed to the districts along with a diverse composition of ethnicities. Well, our editor here at CTV-3 news takes that to mean that the UDP Leader and Prime Minister of this country has decided to endorse looks over brains. If the reasons for his decision are solely based on ethnicity and geographic location, Belize is in for some darker days ahead. Leadership should not be about how one looks or where they are from, but rather, how they lead. But that’s for another story on another day.
While Faber does not count on the support of UDP Leader Dean Barrow, he does count on the support of several big wig names within the party. Former Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel, Dean Lindo and Mesopotamia Representative and Senior member of the party Michael Finnegan, have all come out in full support of Patrick Faber’s bid for Deputy Party Leader. Dean Barrow’s support for Vega struck through the political circuits of the UDP as hard hitting as a chess player saying Check. It will be interesting to see if this move was not one of the flexing of the political muscle by Barrow who is sending a message to the rank and file of the Party; what that message is, we are sure to find out in the days ahead.
Also in the race for Cayo south which is predicted to be a good one, is Ralph Huang which will be determined on February 16th of 2014 at Roaring Creek.
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