Can Belize Expect a 2025 Election Landslide?

2025 is one heavily anticipated year in Belize’s political arena. In the last months of 2024, the opposition party—the United Democratic Party (UDP)—faced a series of challenges in its leadership. It still does. On Thursday, Audrey Matura gave the Open Your Eyes viewers an insight into her political analysis as we enter Belize’s election year.

Matura pointed out strongly the government’s position of strength and the opposition’s fractured state amid the series of troubles the opposition has faced over the last few months. Matura argues that the prime minister, John Briceño, should seize the opportunity to hold elections while the opposition finds itself “at their lowest.”

One of the key moments of the UDP leadership crisis was the October 2024 “unity convention” held by the Alliance for Democracy (AFD), led by Albert Area Rep. Tracy Taegar Panton. At the convention’s conclusion, Panton announced that she had been elected interim leader of the UDP. However, the legitimacy of this convention is now under scrutiny. The court will determine whether it was a valid national convention and if Panton remains a UDP member.

Despite the presence of a constitutional leader within the opposition, Matura stated that the UDP’s inability to unite its members suggests that internal divisions make it difficult for the opposition to pose a serious challenge to the government. “The infighting has not stopped, and the recent court ruling is not helping,” she said.

The court has set a timeline to resolve the leadership dispute within the United Democratic Party (UDP) between Mesopotamia Area Rep. Moses “Shyne” Barrow and Albert Area Rep. Tracy Panton. The court will determine whether the Alliance for Democracy’s ‘unity convention’ held in October 2024 was a valid national convention and whether Panton is still a member of the UDP.

Matura also warned that without a strong opposition and civil society organisations like the BNTU playing their usual role in holding the government accountable, Belize’s democratic system could suffer. “It’s civil society now that should be checks and balances, but civil society itself is very dormant. The most aggressive one used to be BNTU, and they’re just not there right now.” Matura stated.