Honourable No More, Shyne Loses

The Honourable “Shyne” is no longer ‘Honourable’ after he lost his division in the March 12 general election. Just after 9 p.m., Moses “Shyne” Barrow conceded defeat after being unseated by another candidate running under the same United Democratic Party (UDP) banner, businessman Lee Mark Chang.

The bitter loss showed that Barrow was defeated by 98 votes, securing him only 318 votes. UDP’s Chang won the constituency by a total of 601 votes. Meanwhile, the People’s United Party’s (PUP) candidate, Lawrence Ellis, garnered 503 votes. The total voter turnout on March 12 in the Mesopotamia constituency stood at 1,422 out of 2,253 registered voters.

Upon his defeat, Barrow addressed the outcome, stating, “The people have spoken; congratulations to Lee Mark Chang—he’s now the new area representative of Mesopotamia, and I wish him well.” He added that the voter turnout was a clear reflection of the public’s sentiment. “I was confident; that was the interaction I was having with the people, but they made a decision to go in another direction, and I respect that,” he said.

Chang’s victory marks a historic moment for the constituency and Belize as a whole. Chang’s win against Barrow had made him the first Belizean-Chinese to secure a seat in the House of Representatives. Despite running under the UDP banner, Chang was part of Tracy Panton’s slate of 13 candidates. This was because an October 2024 “unity convention” led by Panton was the beginning of the haemorrhaging fracture of the UDP. A series of legal disputes followed after that convention, with both Barrow and Panton claiming to be the rightful leader of the party.

Chang had previously stated during an appearance on the Open Your Eyes morning show, “We need to remove the ‘cancer,'” referring to Barrow. He went on to accuse Barrow of leaving voters disillusioned with unmet promises, claiming, “The people are realising they have been bamboozled.”

To add insult to injury, Panton, who is leading her slate under the traditional UDP red banner, was re-elected for a third term as the area representative of the Albert constituency.

Barrow’s defeat raises critical questions regarding the ongoing internal divisions of the party. When asked about the future of the UDP party, he stated, “I certainly will resign effective once we have a national convention to elect a new leader. Obviously you can’t be a leader of the United Democratic Party once you’re not a member of the House, and I would not want to be appointed as a senator or anything to hold on to the leadership.” He added once more, “The people have spoken here.”

Does this mean the end of his political career?