Opposition Leader Reviews U.D.P. Failure At Polls

As we reported earlier, Leader of the Opposition, Moses “Shyne” Barrow predicted a clean sweep for the United Democratic Party across all nine municipalities. Well, tonight Barrow is admitting that he erred in making such a prediction. But, he says the U.D.P.’s failure at the polls was not all the party’s fault. He contends that foreign government interference and the People’s United Party’s increased infrastructural investments leading up to the municipals persuaded voters.

 

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“In our democracy the people have to be convinced that the decision they are making is the right ne and unfortunately in Belize there were rampant foreign interference. You had foreign governments donating sixteen million dollars grants weeks before the elections, one million dollar grant in Belmopan to build houses, sixty days before the elections. Those things are disgusting and blatant interference. You have BTB fifty million dollar bond used for municipal projects sixty days before the elections for the candidates and you had this whirlwind blitz of government resources being used, national government resources being used to convince the people that something was happening. The other part is that we have more work to do as a political organization. Our candidates have more work to do to make sure we can penetrate all of the interference, whether it is foreign governments, the tens of millions of dollars being spent on elections, obviously the opposition cannot match that dollar for dollar. The way we could match it is through our capacity, our intellectual capacity, personalities and all the things that make you a potential area representative. I think we need to do work as far as strengthening our capacities so that we can convince people that despite them being plied with treats that we still have the highest cost of living ever, ramped crime corruption, the stevedores have a problem, the caneros have a problem, the teachers have a problem, right on the eve of elections.”