The PUP held its National Party Council meeting this afternoon at Independence Hall in Belize City. As we told you the NPC is held before the national convention and about 170 delegates vote for key executive posts. Those decisions are then simply endorsed by the wider membership at the national convention, assuring zero embarrassments or surprises on the convention floor.
And the bottom line of today's event is that no one was unseated. John Briceno held unto his post as a deputy, and as he himself had predicted, Mike Espat lost in his bid for a Deputy's post. Briceno did it with the expressed support of the party leader and the party executive, which declared that it wanted the party leadership structure to remain intact.
But a look inside the number shows that again, Godfrey Smith, now a favorite of the party's hard line hawks - has emerged as the deputy who garnered the most votes. He did so at the 2005 national convention, surprising then incumbent John Briceno. But if 2005 was a surprise, today's win was convincing, as smith got 119 of the delegates' votes, to
Briceno's 104. Deputy Prime Minister Vildo Marin came in a disappointing third in the deputies' race with 101 votes, while mike Espat got only 85 in his failed bid.
Eamon Courtenay was confirmed as director of party policy. He had withdrawn his candidacy for treasurer basically as a compromise to ensure that Briceno had the leadership's support in his bid for deputy...
