Earlier this week it was reported that the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP) was meeting to make a final ruling on the endorsement of attorney Arthur Saldivar as its candidate for the Belize Rural North constituency, after putative challenger Gerone Wade (also known as Jerome Wade) first withdrew his challenge, and then changed his mind. (See story elsewhere in this issue.)
On Wednesday it was confirmed that the National Executive of the Opposition had agreed to uphold Party Chairman Henry Charles Usher’s decision to have Saldivar endorsed.
That decision has in turn resulted, at least in part, in the resignation of two members of the Executive, Deputy Party Leader Daniel Silva and newly appointed Liaison to the
Social Partners, Hugh O’Brien. (We will have more on this elsewhere in this issue.)
The PUP issued a press release today discussing the events leading up to its decision, but not mentioning the resignations.
The release states that Wade was recommended to be disqualified from standing in the division by the Order of Distinguished Service (ODS) after his interview with them on December 13. He appealed, and the appeal was upheld.
The release cited an agreement signed by both candidates which agreed that “the vetting and finalization of the Voter’s List will be done on 16th January 2011. The Parties agreed to waive the right to vet and complete the list 14 days prior to the convention date.” The convention is closed to non-supporters of the Party.
Wade, whose campaign manager is his second cousin, Rufus X, then raised an objection during the vetting of the list and declared then and there that he would not participate, leaving only Saldivar standing.
We caught up with Saldivar in Belize City today, and he told us that at the December 13 meeting with the ODS certain allegations against Wade came up, and that the ODS decided that “it was not in the best interests of the Party” to allow Wade to stand at that time.
After the appeal was upheld and Wade signed the agreement, the vetting of the list commenced and it was then that Wade objected and appeared to back down from his challenge.
According to Saldivar, while he holds no animosity towards his putative challenger, a simple reading of the Party Constitution, he believes, would have saved Wade from his current situation.
Article 28 (4), which governs Special Conventions, limits voting only to “financial members” of the Party who are registered in the division. Saldivar told us that he has personally been actively registering PUP supporters in the division to participate in the convention – even to the point of sending Wade and his family an application, to which they did not respond.
Saldivar said that Wade, at the meeting on Sunday, January 16, did not present his own list of approved voters, despite knowing beforehand that the convention was being limited to PUP supporters only. The list submitted totaled about 965 voters, fewer than 20% (19.66%) of the total voting population of the division, which at last count (August 2010), was 4,909 voters.
The party says that it will amend the criteria for standard bearer conventions to have the voters’ list in the constituency as compiled by the Election and Boundaries Department be the sole list used, from which the voting list for the party convention would be compiled by a committee which includes the candidates, constituency chair and Party chair or someone of his choosing, and which would also serve as the committee of appeal, including the chair of the constituency branch.
This evening by telephone, the disenfranchised Jerome Wade spoke out for the first time. He told Amandala that he and his campaign organization were under the impression – and had been promised such by party officials – that the official, Election and Boundaries Department-compiled voters’ list would be vetted to remove purported UDP supporters and campaigners, which he estimates to be about 10% of the total voting population in the area.
He was therefore surprised when the party chairman accepted the 952 names compiled as the official voting list, and decided then and there, he said, that it would be useless to contest what would be a “rigged convention.”
Said Wade, when we told him that convention numbers may not translate to the general election, “I understand that, but how can 952 people decide the fate of 4,909? I have been campaigning all over; how can I now go back to these people and ask for their vote?”
“This convention is not about me. This is about the people. It is about helping people with their many challenges. I campaigned to as many people as I can; I was born and grew up in the division. Right now there are a lot of people who are upset and extremely disappointed. This is not about me; it’s about the principle.”
Asked whether he would now support Saldivar, join his constituency committee, or even attend the convention, Wade said emphatically, “Of course not! I will not be part of anything that excludes the people of Belize Rural North. For years now, it’s been about exclusion. Every time we elect a representative, he gets rich, a few get rich, and the people have not benefited. I got into politics to change all of that.”
He added that he had assurances from the party chairman that the party’s financial membership system would not be used in the convention, due to lack of proper record-keeping.
The biggest question for Wade is this: “Why are they afraid to face me in a convention? In every other constituency they do it the right way. Why be different here? Ask (Saldivar) that. Why is he afraid to face me in a convention?”
The convention to endorse Saldivar is slated for Sunday morning at 11:00 in the village of Scotland Halfmoon, Belize District.