Political Machinery of the U.D.P. in Full Force to Push YES Vote
Belizeans go to the polls on May eighth to vote on whether or not the Belize Guatemala territorial dispute should be taken to the International Court of Justice for final resolution. That is only five days away now and today, Acting Prime Minister Patrick Faber said they are ready. Though it should not be a political issue, Faber says that the political machinery of the U.D.P. will be out in full force to push the “yes” vote.
Patrick Faber, Acting Prime Minister
“It is not a red or blue issue. It is not a party politics issue as is normally the case for elections. To begin with, inside the counting room, while we will have representation from the two major political parties we will also have representation from the other entities that have a stake and we determine that, I think the chief elections officer determined that by looking at who is represented in the national assembly. So invitations were sent out to the churches, I believe to the unions, to the business community, to the NGO community for them to be able to put a representative in each of those polling stations so to speak. So that is the kind of difference. Nobody will or should be taking this thing along party lines although to be honest you know that it has been drawn down that road so to speak. This referendum is binding on us so whatever the decision of the people, if it is a yes, that is what the government intends to do, if it is a no then that is what the government intends to do.”
Reporter
“Sir, so on May eighth we are not expecting to see people with red shirts, people peddling people out of their houses, just polls…”
Patrick Faber
“Well I didn’t say that and I want to be clear on that. The U.D.P. has a position. The P.U.P. has also made clear their position and nobody can stop political parties from trying to do what they need to do to get the kind of outcome that they feel is right. We are all Belizeans and in fact political parties and all in this country claim to be looking out for the best interest of the people and they have a right to try to influence the situation as much as possible to get that outcome that they believe is right for Belize. it just so happens that in this instance what the government’s position, and I repeat that is a yes position, and what the U.D.P.’s position, that is a yes position, and it’s not like the P.U.P. We are not divided. Unanimously in the U.D.P. we support a yes vote and yes our party’s machinery and equipment will be out full force.”
Polls open at seven o’clock on Wednesday morning. We will have the full coverage of the process live on Channel Five as our reporters are deployed countrywide.
