Tracy Taegar-Panton Defies Shyne, Asserts Strong Support for Unity Convention

The internal power struggle within the United Democratic Party (U.D.P.) has reached a boiling point, with the Alliance for Democracy, led by Albert Area Representative Tracy Taegar-Panton, taking centre stage this weekend. For months, Taegar-Panton and her supporters have been organising what they describe as a Special Unity Convention. That convention is set for this Sunday and is to name Taegar-Panton as the U.D.P. interim leader. And as the U.D.P.’s internal war continues to play out publicly, it’s clear that Taegar-Panton is not backing down. The Alliance claims they have the support of seventeen constituencies. Taegar-Panton says that despite efforts to discredit the Alliance, they are pushing full steam ahead. But, in a hypothetical future, let’s say that the Alliance gets the number of delegates. Let’s say that Taegar-Panton is voted as the so-called interim leader. What happens next? They don’t have the keys to the U.D.P. headquarters. Will they storm the building? The official party’s position is that Panton and her crew are no longer members of the U.D.P. The unity convention does not have the blessing of the U.D.P.’s executive, and as such, the U.D.P. won’t recognise it. So, will that convention be a waste of time and resources? We asked Taegar-Panton.

 

Tracy Taegar-Panton, Area Representative, Albert

“We have not been removed as members of the United Democratic Party because you cannot unilaterally or arbitrarily remove anybody from the party. There’s a process that is outlining the Constitution that tells you how members are removed. That process has not been followed. You can’t declare us to be not UDP. The Constitution also says very clearly that twenty-five percent, or one quarter of the delegates of the National Convention at any time can convene our national convention by petition. We have superseded that threshold. That threshold is one hundred and thirty-two delegates; two hundred and thirty-two delegates signed that petition. I want to assure the Belizean people that everything that we’re doing on Sunday is following the letter off the Constitution because we can’t say that we’re taking action because the democracy of the party is being eroded and then act ultra virus to that. We are following the Constitution, and the Constitution of the party allows for inclusion. It allows for voices of dissent. It allows for a participatory approach to making decisions within this party. And all of that has been thrown out, disregarded, dismissed. And when you don’t agree with the current Leader of the Opposition, he silences you. He removes you, as he has done today, from the House committees. He removes you from the internal committees of the party. He removes you from the chat groups. That, my friends, is not democracy. It is not what democracy looks like. It is a dictatorship. I’m very confident that we will supersede the threshold. It’s a simple majority, fifty percent plus one, that would be two hundred and sixty-five delegates, and I can tell you, as of today, we have a delegate count of over three hundred. We’re not throwing anybody out because we don’t have the mandate to do that. We will get the mandate on Sunday from the highest decision makers of this party, which are our delegates. And when we are given that mandate, we are going to follow the mandate.”