_{(Top row) Opposition Leader Hon. Tracy Panton, Albert area representative; Shyne Barrow; (Bottom row) Michael Peyrefitte and Senator Patrick Faber}

by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 17, 2025

The United Democratic Party remains divided, with no end in sight to the internal rifts, as the claims being made by former Mesopotamia area representative Moses “Shyne” Barrow, to leadership of the party even after his defeat at the polls, were a key part of a party dynamic that led to the exclusion of the elected Opposition Leader in the House of Representatives, Hon. Tracy Panton, from the National Party Council (NPC) meeting that was to be held at the UDP Headquarters on Saturday, July 12, but was derailed when those in attendance failed to achieve quorum. They even attempted to eject the UDP’s lead representative in the Senate, former UDP leader, Hon. Patrick Faber, who appeared at the headquarters despite not being invited, and refused to leave when he was shown the door.

The hitherto UDP chairman, Michael Peyrefitte, who was recalled from resignation to mediate a reunification between Panton’s Alliance for Democracy (AFD) and Shyne Barrow’s faction, resigned a second time on Wednesday, July 16, in frustration at Shyne’s unwillingness to facilitate reconciliation.

Panton criticized this farce as a contravention of the UDP’s party constitution, at a press conference at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, July 15. She dismissed Barrow’s attempt to hold an NPC meeting as nonsensical: “We are yet to receive any formal or informal communique from the current leadership executive on the outcome of the National Party Council meeting… the attempt to convene a national party council meeting without inclusion of the NPC members status quo, and without key persons being invited,” she said.

She said the AFD is prepared to sit down with Barrow as equal partners to determine how to move the party forward united, and how to rebuild a robust Opposition that the people want. Failing that, she said, the AFD cannot “legitimize a process that is completely illegitimate.”   “During the …  before the court hearing, during the court hearing, after the court hearing, we made an appeal to Jamal Barrow for us to sit down and mediate the situation. At every juncture, Jamal Barrow said no,” she further noted.

“A meeting that had to be aborted due to a lack of quorum and pure obstinance by party officials is an affront to the democratic precepts which we all hold dear,” she avowed. “It is imperative that as we move forward to adhere to the party’s constitution and rules, that there must be a free, fair, and open leadership convention,” Panton went on to say, and she added that such principles should also be applied to the caretaker conventions.

She challenged Barrow’s plan for caretaker constituency conventions in only 18 of 26 constituencies, as “a clear violation of party rule number 8, which places such conventions in the purview of constituency committees and constituency chairpersons—not with the membership of the Central Executive Committee or with the NPC—and allows for a clear deadline of 12 months after the general elections to conduct such conventions.” She conceded that caretaker conventions should proceed immediately in the four constituencies which did not field candidates for the March 12 general elections, as they “do not have bona fide caretakers now in place. In the interest of fair play, we have caretaker conventions in all 26 constituencies that do not have elected area representatives.” The five UDP representatives who now sit in the House should not be subject to a caretaker convention, she additionally emphasized.

Despite Peyrefitte’s assertions to the contrary, Panton said the physical meeting did not achieve quorum, not even with others who participated virtually online, as only 28 delegates voted on a resolution which was put before the floor, which was only 27 percent of the 106 NPC members, even though the voting was extended until 5:00 p.m.

She decried the manner of voting, in which silence was interpreted as consent, as “pure madness … not the democracy that we believe in. That is not the democracy that we intend to promote or uphold.”

Panton further condemned Barrow’s contrived process as a sham, as he made no attempt “genuinely to bridge the gap, to bridge the divide; to hold hands and say, ‘it’s not going to be perfect, but let’s find a way to move forward together’. There would be no reason to exclude a former party leader, the lead senator … and the caretaker for Collet from a meeting.”

Panton declared that she could neither countenance nor legitimize the process towards a national convention in October. She condemned the notion of caretaker conventions in each constituency as “completely violating the constitutional processes of the party, that now the bona fide caretakers must be subject to a convention”, simply because they were nominated by Panton’s Alliance For Democracy.

Senator Patrick Faber dismissed the Barrow faction’s attempts to eject him from the meeting: “When I got into the room, I was greeted with hugs and handshakes. I made my way to the left corner of the room from the door by the podium, and I sat there and I refused to move,” he said.  When the UDP vice chairman, Alberto August, asked him to leave because he had not been invited, Faber said, “I am not leaving. I have all rights to be here. I have not been expelled from this party. I am a former leader of this party. I am the lead senator for this party. I have every right to be here!” He said he stood his ground despite an angry tirade from some of those present for him to leave. Faber said he counted 43, maybe 45 members present, who then called off the meeting.