But while Shyne and Tracy say they're ready to lead, the truth is that they're vying for a position that doesn't even exist! That's because Patrick Faber hasn't resigned as yet. In his statement yesterday, he explained that his resignation would come into effect on January 31st, but political observers know that one day in politics is like a year -and, in that time, there can be a hundred decisions and indecisions.
That means that in the next six days, anything can happen, so - until it's done - Faber's resignation is still up in the air. Today, via Zoom, the UDP chairman explained that even he isn't sure what Faber's next move is.
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"As we speak, he is still the leader of the U.D.P.; I haven't received any resignation letter and I have not been informed that any official resignation letter has been tendered to the secretariat. All I have is a video, I think that everybody has seen, of which he has indicated that he is going to resign, but it will take effect January thirty-first. What's today's date, January twenty-fifth - that's about five six days; that's a lifetime in politics. If it was me and I was resigning, I would do it immediately. You would have to ask him as to why he would do a resignation to take effect at some time in the future."
"What happens now? nothing. Patrick Faber is still the leader of the UDP. If he officially resigns then at that point then the party will move on to determine a new leader. You can resign from leader of opposition in the house and not necessarily resigned as party leader, you can resign as party leader, but not necessarily leader of opposition in the house. I don't know. Like I said unless there is a new way of doing things, I haven't received any written official confirmation in the usual way of when a person resigns from the UDP. From now until January 31, he could come back and say well he changes his mind, he could come back and I did say I was not going to resign until the 31, it's not yet the 31. So we don't know. When you have something set to happen in the future especially in politics, it could be anything, so that is the limbo we find ourselves in."
And while Peyrefitte hopes that Faber will be true to his word and indeed resign, we asked him if he feels gratified considering that Faber had referred to him as a "vulture" for voicing his opinion on Friday.
Jules Vasquez
"Is there any gratification for you knowing that you called for this, you are the only one bold enough to call for it and eventually he had to do it."
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"There is no gratification from me in what's going on. We as a party we have must come off from a bruising ordeal with the attempt at his recall and all of that. I believe that we had picked up most of the pieces and we were moving along just as we wanted. I believe that we were bringing the issues to the Belizean people, now all of a sudden Johnny doesn't really have to explain to the 15 million or what's is he going to do with it. All of a sudden, we are not talking about insurance, about the sugar industry, we have a major issue at the port - we are not talking about it anymore, so this situation that has brought about, with the UDP, there is nothing gratifying for it for me at all. I would have preferred for this not to have happened. I would have preferred that we would have had a good bowl of steam going into town board elections, city council elections 2025 with Patrick Faber as the leader of the UDP."
"I could have played it cagily like some others have, but that's not the type of person I am. If I see something and if I can point out what I believe is wrong about the PUP and wrong about the other side, then I also have to be the first to point out what I think is wrong with somebody on our side."
