Opposition to name shadow Cabinet
And according to the P.U.P., they are out but it’s not over. At this morning’s press conference the Opposition outlined its plan of action for the years ahead including its internal own process. Briceño advised that the P.U.P. is naming a shadow cabinet and various party members will be tasked with oversight of government activities while presenting the party’s recommendations and policies.
Since its crushing defeat in February, the party has done its soul searching and analysis, and has re-defined itself. Briceño said an independent consultant conducted a study in which six hundred P.U.P. supporters were polled to find out what went wrong and what is needed to energize the party for 2013. Today he revealed some of these findings known as the Miranda Report.
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“With our collection of political programming and a team of young and exciting DJs offering our audience creative programming, we are ready to make Vibes Radio the new voice of the P.U.P. We have moved quickly to restructure and reorganize our party. We want the Belizean people to know that we intend to be a responsible opposition who does not only represent the interest of our supporters, but is the voice of opposition for all Belizeans. Through our legislative work in parliament, we will protect the rights and interests of our people. We want everyone to know that we are going to be active and we are going to make sure that the U.D.P. government is accountable. They promised greater accountability in their manifesto and we will hold them to their promise.”
“We have been reorganizing the party we have been going from constituency to constituency electing new constituencies, as I mentioned. We have already reelected twenty-nine new constituency executives and we have two that are going to be finished by the end of this year. The Miranda report gave us an opportunity to reflect and to look at where we went wrong and what we need to do to move forward. One of the most important things that the Miranda report says is that we need to go back to the base. We need to let people feel that they are a part of this party; the inclusiveness of the People’s United Party that has been the strength, the whole issue of to serve the people. Our message has been consistent, calling people, getting them involved, listening to them, asking for their advice and trying to find a way of how we can unite the party so we can move forward.”
One measure that the party hopes to adopt is to increase the number of convention delegates from one for every hundred votes received in elections, to one for every twenty-five votes allotted at their conventions. This had been a major bone of contention in the battle for leadership in March of this year.
