"I'm with her" - that's what a number of influential UDP figures posted on their Facebook and WhatsApp profiles today. The picture is an expression of support for Tracey Teagar Panton to replace Shyne Barrow as leader of the UDP.
It's a follow up to a weekend meeting of disgruntled standard bearers in Orange Walk which prominently featured Taegar Panton, Beverly Williams, and former leaders Patrick Faber and John Saldivar. An unofficial press release says they gathered to discuss the "general reform" that San Ignacio Santa Elena Mayor Earl Trapp suggested last week.
Coming out of that - and perhaps buoyed by some Kamala Harris fever catching on from the US - Faber and others like Belize Rural North's Edmond Castro and Corozal Bay's Ivan Puerto today made the post - backing Panton to replace Shyne Barrow.
But, it's not quite the palace coup. And that's because removing, or recalling a party leader is a complicated process. To remove Barrow, his opponents would need the signature of close to 400 delegates. This process has been tried before and it failed. It can succeed - as it almost did against Patrick Faber - but it isn't easy.
And to remove Barrow as Leader of the opposition in the House, Taegar Panton would need the support of two more elected reps. Patrick Faber would support her, but she'd still be one short. And for that she would need Hugo Patt or Denise "Sista B" Barrow's support. And that's also not going to happen. Patt told us today that elections are near and he's not going to get behind any move to replace the leader.
Taegar-Panton declined comment today.
