Corozal North Constituents Weigh in on Leadership Dispute

The battle for recognition as the true leader of the United Democratic Party (U.D.P.) between Leader of the Opposition and Mesopotamia Area Representative, Moses “Shyne” Barrow, and Albert Area Representative, Tracy Taegar-Panton, continues to intensify. Earlier this week, Panton made a bold move by taking over the party headquarters on Youth for the Future Drive in Belize City, asserting her control over the compound and party organs. In response, Barrow has enlisted the legal expertise of Jamaican attorney Doctor Christopher Malcolm to strengthen his position.  Meanwhile, the U.D.P.’s First Deputy Leader, Hugo Patt, remains a key figure amidst the factional dispute. News Five’s Marion Ali traveled to the Corozal North constituency, where Patt serves, to ask him if he feels caught in the middle of this U.D.P. tug-of-war. We also spoke with several residents of the constituency to gather their perspectives on the ongoing conflict. Here’s that report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

Moses “Shyne” Barrow and Tracy Taegar-Panton may have their differences, but they share one commonality: both have named Corozal North Area Representative, Hugo Patt, as their First Deputy Party Leader on their executive slates. Today, we visited Patt to ask if he feels caught in the middle of this political tug-of-war.

 

Hugo Patt, First Deputy Leader, U.D.P

“I’ve spoken to both sides and I told him that my position is presently is that I will respect the process that transpired last year in August, if I’m not mistaken, where you had, the National Party Convention basically taking a decision and where an executive was endorsed and so my position is to respect the process. If in the case of Tracy and Shyne, we were to look at the situation, if Tracy had been in the position that on around that Shyne is right now, I would have supported her. If Patrick would have been there, I would have supported her and him. If anybody else was there, I would have supported that person. To maintain in order for the United Democratic Party to have certainty going forward. That is my biggest concern.”

 

Patt expressed his desire for both factions to reconcile their differences. Despite Panton securing the majority of UDP delegates at the convention two Sundays ago, Patt emphasized that he would have preferred to see both sides come together and mend fences.

 

Hugo Patt

“I’m aware that there was a substantial number of delegates in the activity that Honorable Panton did. I cannot personally underestimate that. I had advised Ms. Panton, look, wait it out. It’s just a few months, in my opinion, that’s left before we have a general election. Let us work together. Let us focus each on our individual constituencies so that we can put a decent fighting whenever we have the general elections. And I spoke to Honorable Vara as well. I told him, look, we have to sit down together and talk to everybody. We will have differences but let us agree to leave our differences aside. And for the sake of our people, let us make sure that we do the right thing, but that’s as far as I can go.”

 

But who do the constituents in Corozal North believe is their true party leader? We got mixed responses.

 

Sinai Arana, U.D.P. Supporter, Corozal North

“I go with whosoever is the leader. I’m not taking no sides.”

 

Marion Ali

“But both of them are claiming they are the leader.”

 

Sinai Arana

“Yeah, well, honestly, on my side, as a UDP, I do not agree in the fight they’re having at the moment and that was one of the reasons I was not present. In fact, I was never called for the convention, “so-called” convention they had. I was not called as a delegate. They never consult me or called me or anything. So I was not present at the moment.”

 

Marion Ali

“You said “so-called” convention. My thinking is that you’re supporting Mr. Barrow.”

 

Sinai Arana

“No, I’m not supporting anyone.”

 

Vilma Vellos, U.D.P. Supporter, Corozal North

“I’m not going to take part for any of them, not either Tracy, nor Mr. Barrow because I think both of them can be great leaders, but I think it’s not the time for this at this moment.”

 

Inecita Hall, U.D.P. Supporter, Corozal North

“I am a supporter of Hugo Patt. I, as a leader of the village – the best we want is to make this problem stop. It’s for the betterment of our party. Well, that’s, I can take part with Mr. Shyne or Ms. Tracy. Everybody has their own opinion, but we only want this problem to end.”

Marion Ali

“So if I were to ask you, who do you think is the real leader of the UDP? Who would you say?”

 

Inecita Hall

“Well, on the last, um, convention, I vote for Shyne Barrow.”

 

Hugo Patt felt the need to say sorry to U.D.P supporters for the ongoing feud that’s been tearing the party apart and weakening its stance as the opposition.

 

Hugo Patt

“I want to tell this to the Belizean people and particularly to the thousands of the United Democratic Party supporters that we have across this country that I must apologize on behalf of everybody for what’s happening. Certainly myself, I feel very disheartened at what has been transpiring for quite some time now, to the point that we have been segregated. And I don’t think that it is fair for, or I think it is a disservice to all of our thousands of supporters that, you know, we are going through this. Many, many Belizeans, many of our supporters, the country is depending on a, on a strong opposition.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.