On Friday we heard Deputy Prime Minister John Briceno's comment on the SPEAR poll. He affirmed the basic party position that while, in the main, the PUP's support is low, a large portion of the electorate is uncommitted, and can be successfully courted. What does UDP party whip Michael Finnegan think of that? We caught up with him on the streets of his division today. And we found out that Finnegan is a man who claims to have some mastery at interpreting polls.
Hon. Michael Finnegan, Mesopotamia Area Rep.
"How can you add in the seventeen plus percent of people that were undecided? They didn't say that they were going to vote for the UDP or that they weren't going to vote for the PUP. They are undecided so how can you have them in."
Jules Vasquez,
The PUP feels there is 50% of the voting public that has not made a commitment. They feel they are able to court and seduce these voters. So the PUP feels there is hope, looking at that poll. What is your response to that?
Hon. Michael Finnegan,
"If the PUP is as bright as I think they are, and bright as me, the PUP is dead out there. The PUP is dead. The PUP will be blown apart. It is blind
eye Jamesy could see that the PUP will be blown apart and the PUP is just hanging on. The same way the UDP knew that they were going to lose badly in '98 and that Barrow would barely hang on or Contreras would barely hang on, the UDP knew that. We knew that Mr. Esquivel and all of them were going to lose. You tell me what is the difference, why the PUP didn't forecast that licking on March 1st. They knew that Jules.
All politics is local and that was proven in 1998 in Belize that all politics is local. It doesn't matter how unpopular the UDP were in 1998, they couldn't beat me and Barrow because all politics is local and we must remember that and take that into consideration so we in the UDP must pay no mind to no poll. We must stay out here and dig."
And to confirm that he's very old school, Finnegan attended his journalism course in 1983.
