And while from the UDP perspective, debt troubles cloud the future, indeed the future of the UDP and Dean Barrow is nebulous in its own way. And that's because party leader Dean Barrow has now publicly revealed that if the UDP loses the town board elections, he'll step down as leader. That's what he said on Friday on Love FM, confirming a position long rumored in political circles. Today, we asked him to amplify that position.
Jules Vasquez,
You have said on LOVE FM that in the event that the UDP loses the municipal elections, and I would ask you to define what constitutes a lost, but in the event the UDP loses the elections, you will step down as leader.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"Yes I've said that and I am not going to resign from that. I think if the UDP loses that would be the proper thing for me to do and I don't want to play fast and loose with you but there is that question of what would constitute a loss. For me, ideally, we need to win a majority of the town council elections and that's clearly straightforward. There are nine municipal elections, there are nine and if we win five we gaan clear. If we do no better than hold on to the three that we have and Belize City, given the population concentration in Belize City, I would still have to see that as a victory. If we lose Belize City and we lose some of what we have, or if we don't hold on to what we have, I would see that as representing no progress and I would feel that inevitably I would have to leave."
Jules Vasquez,
You said this to me in 2003. I interviewed you three days before the elections and I said 'if you lose' and you said 'I would resign' and you repeated it the day after the elections. You are still here.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"And I in fact convened the party and said that I need to go and that I am going, and hope you don't think that it was a ploy, but the assembled gatherings spoke out against that as one. There was not even a single dissenting voice."
Jules Vasquez,
And if that were to happen again?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"But this time...well the people are sovereign, the party is sovereign where I am concerned, and if the party were to say, 'look, even in a caretaker fashion, you need to hang on for a while longer,' it would be difficult to resist the party. But I don't see why the party would need to say that, there are capable people. The only scenario in which that is likely is if we lost and general elections were clearly going to be called within three months, it might do more harm than good to have a change of leadership and also, since in that sort of scenario its impossible to see how we would win those early general elections, I might as well go forward and have my head finally and completely severed politically."
And what does Prime Minister Said Musa think of his chief political adversary's decision to quit if he loses? Well, the quite savvy PM doesn't put very much stock in it. Yesterday he told us he isn't even "studying" Dean Barrow.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"I haven't even thought about it
frankly. What do I make of Dean's comment? I think he is trying to gain some sympathy. I think he realizes that his party is in trouble and he is obviously trying to, as sort of a last ditch effort, to rally the troops and say, 'listen man I am on the line with this one so please don't let me down.'"
Jules Vasquez,
Is that an inspiration for your troops to vanquish a political adversary?
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"No I wouldn't want them to think so, that it will be an inspiration for them. I see it as an attempt to try and gain sympathy and we shouldn't play on that."
As leader since 1998, Barrow has not bested Musa in any major election, making only modest gains in the town boards by taking control of three municipalities, regaining 5 seats in the National Assembly, and winning a Cayo South bye-election.
