The Youth are Inheriting the P.U.P.

The infusion of new blood into the political organization is a concern that has been shared among members of the party. On Wednesday, Kareem Musa spoke unequivocally on what he calls the audacity of youth, more specifically their role and inclusion in the leadership of the P.U.P. In addressing those concerns, Party Leader John Briceño highlighted a few mayoral and councilor candidates who qualify as youths that will be running for public office.

Isani Cayetano

“A charge has been made that the People’s United Party and its leadership should perhaps give way for the rise of new and youthful members of the party to be more active in the steering and the direction of the P.U.P.   As the party leader, would you be able to speak to that?”

John Briceño

John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader

“Well, one: I have opened up the party so that any and everybody can participate.  Two: when you look at the candidates that we are putting forward for the municipal elections, in Belize City, five out of the eleven are under the age of twenty-eight.  Our mayoral candidate in Benque Viejo del Carmen is about twenty-two years old.  Tanya Santos, running for mayor, a woman running for mayor in Belmopan, you know, a young person in her early thirties; we’ve been opening up the party across the length and breadth of the country.  In Corozal Town where we have somebody like Rigo Vellos, somebody who hasn’t been really involved in politics but now wants to serve his party.  You know, in Dangriga we have, our mayoral candidate is a Belizean; he was a B.D.F. who went to live in the U.S.  He came back, still young and now he has come back and wants to serve the country.  So we are opening up the party, we are encouraging people and we are getting new blood into the party.  That is what makes this party so vibrant, that we’ve always afforded opportunities to new people, both young and the not-so-young, both the experienced and the inexperienced people to come in and to join us.  It’s a big task ahead of us to try to restore some sanity back into this country.”