Patrick Faber Still Interested in Leadership…But Will Wait for 2020

Dean Barrow

The United Democratic Party will be holding a national convention this March. Some executive positions such as Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Deputy Leader and Leader will be up for election. And while there will be challengers to the chairmanship and the deputy chair, no one will be running against the Deputy Party Leader, the powerhouse from the north, Gaspar Vega and certainly it’s a given that as it relates to the leadership, Prime Minister Barrow, will not be challenged.  But fast track to 2020, that’s a different matter. The PM told News Five two weeks ago that he will be retiring which means that the field is wide open for leadership. There are three contenders: Vega, Minister John Saldivar who has not uttered a word, and Minister Patrick Faber.   Faber was less than circumspect today with his ambitions to position himself to be the next leader of the U.D.P.

Patrick Faber

Patrick Faber, U.D.P. Minister

“You know that I have; I’ve never hidden that. I have indicated a long time ago that I have intentions of seeking the leadership of the United Democratic Party. This is my life’s work. I have said to people time and time again that I work hard in my ministry, I work hard in executing things and making sure that things are successful because one of the these days, I do intend to ask the people of this nation—right now it might be the people of my party—to support my ambitions because if you are not successful at that smaller things that are given to you, how then can you expect them to give you that opportunity to serve. But this is, as my colleague Minister Saldivar said, the will and the desire of the people and of course, we leave it all up to them. But yes, I will at that time, not in this convention that is coming up—I will not aspire for any of the offices there—I believe in saving the gunpowder, if you will Jules, for when the big dance comes to town which is going to be in early 2020. We are not in a hurry, we are pleased with Mister Barrow as our leader. You will see that nobody will challenge him on March twentieth and that is because he is gold. But of course, you know that he has indicated that he will go; in fact the constitution demands it. And so the U.D.P. must continue; we will continue as a party making history. We will in fact win that fourth historic term and you have my word that that will be the case no matter which one of us in the U.D.P. are leading. We will keep our act together as opposed to that other great old party.”