For Opposition Leader Dean Barrow - that spells a constitutional crisis. Barrow made a statement today calling for the Prime Minister's resignation. Sure, it seems like the UDP does that every other week, but this time Barrow says it's a legitimate crisis.
Hon. Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"He may have been able to get away with not having taken this issue to Cabinet if Cabinet had decided to rally around to give a kind of after the fact, a retroactive approval. But the Ministers are coming out one by one to say not only did we not know but we did not, could not have approved, and we do not now approve. That is what really has heightened the drama to the point where it is no overstatement to say that is a full blown constitutional crisis.
The Opposition certainly will try to force the pace. I can indicate as of now that if the Prime Minister does not in fact resign, our next move will be to move a motion in the House of Representatives against the guarantee and by extension against the Prime Minister. I believe that if the Prime Minister chooses, despite the compelling legal and constitutional case in favor of resignation, not to go, he will at the very least have to move up the date for general elections."
Jules Vasquez,
Might there not be a middle way, so all that will be required is for the Prime Minister to accept in some way that he is wrong, he did it without the approval of Cabinet, signed a guarantee and deed of settlement, and works out a middle way with the Belize Bank where we agree that we have rearrange it and that perhaps we can pay only the principal figure?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"There are two things wrong with that scenario. The Ministers are leading public opinion, public opinion is leading the Ministers and it is clear that public opinion is in no mood for any kind of compromise. Secondly, Michael Ashcroft is not the sort of person who in my view will give an inch, especially in circumstances where it is clear that nobody put a gun to the head of the Prime Minister, that he freely, uncaringly, signed the guarantee.
So I don't see that there can be any middle ground. The battle lines are drawn. The Cabinet Ministers cannot step off, cannot step back from the positions they have already taken. The public clearly is not going to let them."
Jules Vasquez,
Were you to enter office more expeditiously than is currently anticipated, how would you deal with this intransigent Michael Ashcroft?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"Well I think it would clearly have to be determined in the courts of this country and I have said to you publicly at the press conference that we had last Monday that we would consider bound by a decision of the court.
For the Prime Minister to compound the original sin by doing a second secret document is as I said unfathomable and it is just impossible for people who, unlike the Prime Minister, have not taken leave of their senses to try and explain what merely appeared to be the actions of a madman."
And it may go to court sooner rather than later. 7NEWS has confirmed that the Association of Concerned Belizeans will, likely as soon as Monday, be filing an action in the Supreme Court asking it to order government to take the guarantee document and the subsequent deed of settlement to the National Assembly.
Of course, the conventional wisdom suggests that the Prime Minister would be very reluctant to do that because with a good number of his ministers jumping ship on this issue, it could be much worse on the House floor, possibly amounting to what his critics would say is a no confidence vote.
But even if he does not face that embarrassment in the House, as it looks right now, the PM could be facing a cabinet revolt if he tries to push through the guarantee and the recently signed settlement deed, both of them documents that he has signed.
And while these intrigues swirl, the Prime Minister continues his official visit to Taiwan. He will be there until May 6th.
