BELIZE CITY, Wed. Feb. 9, 2022– On Monday, during a virtual interview, UDP chairman Michael Peyrefitte noted that despite the UDP’s national party council’s decision over the weekend to invoke the new Electronic Transactions Act 2021 in order to put into effect Patrick Faber’s oral resignation, which was placed in a video message about two weeks ago, Hon. Faber is still eligible to vie for leadership of the party on nomination day, set for this Friday. Faber, however, has indicated that he does not intend to do so, said Peyrefitte.

“Technically yes, he can run again. You would remember when the Honorable John Saldivar had resigned after becoming leader-elect, there was a subsequent election to choose just the leader because he resigned and then he ran again. So technically, he can run again, although from what he has said to us in the NPC, he said that for sure he will not run again. But of course, it’s his option to run again if he so chooses,” Peyrefitte said.

During the national party council’s extended virtual session this weekend, members of the council voted on whether to accept Faber’s resignation as final under the Electronic Transactions Act 2021. At the end of the day, the results were nearly split down the middle, with Faber losing by reportedly just one vote. This activated his resignation despite his subsequent decision to not submit a resignation letter – although Faber had insisted in an email to Peyrefitte that a vote by the National Party Council could not remove him from his leadership post.

Peyrefitte has referred to statements made by Faber subsequent to a video message in which he pledged to resign on January 31, as irrelevant, since the electronic publication made in late January amounted to his final decision on the matter.

“Any pronouncement that you make through any electronic form, and electronic form is defined right here in this very act, so I have to believe that when the Honorable Patrick Faber made that statement, he knew or ought to have known that pronouncement publicly through an electronic form would take effect as much as it would have taken effect had it been in writing,” Peyrefitte said.

In regard to any possibility of a legal challenge being brought by Faber, Peyrefitte remarked, “The courts are wide open. We live in a democracy, people are free to go to court and whatever the court decided then that’s what the court decided. I know I have read the act very clearly; come January 31, based on what that Hon. Patrick Faber had said to the world, come January 31, he had resigned, and so whatever he wrote or whatever he didn’t write, subsequent to that he was writing it as no longer the leader of the UDP, so how can you say that it is not your intention to resign when you have already resigned,” Peyrefitte said.

Those seeking to be selected as the new leader of the UDP have been given until February 11 to submit their names so that they can participate in the March 27 UDP national convention. So far, only Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow and Hon. Tracy Panton have indicated that they will seek to become the new leader of the party.