Former P.M. plays down future role
And while the name of Laura Esquivel may be a new one for Belizean voters, that of her father Manuel is not. While the former Prime Minister and UDP leader will not be running this time around, it has been widely rumoured that he would play a prominent role in any future UDP administration. Today we asked him what that role might be.
Manuel Esquivel, Former Prime Minister
“Well first of all, everybody knows that I’m not contesting the next elections. However, I am very much involved with the party central committee. I am now helping in whatever way I can to get the party prepared for elections, and I’m going to try to help to get the party to win the elections. And thereafter, the Party Leader, who would then be the Prime Minister, would be free to decide of course who will be the members of his team that will be working for the government and people. And if he should decide that he would want me to be a part of that team I’d be very happy to do so.”
Stewart Krohn
“Looking at the line-up, right now having such a deficit in the National Assembly, it would mean that even if your party is victorious the House of Representatives would be filled with an unprecedented number of newcomers. Looking at the situation realistically, wouldn’t you think that the Cabinet would have to be composed of a large number of Senators?”
Manuel Esquivel
“Well not really, and I don’t believe that that is in the Party Leader’s plans in any case. I think generally there is a resistance on the part of the Belizean public, not to mention the constituency voters, to a concept of a Senate heavy Cabinet, so I don’t really see that occurring. But I think too we have to recognise that minister of government are part of political directorate as is said, but ministers are not specialists in whatever fields the ministries they are in charge of may compress. What they must be specialists in, is they must be specialists in accessing the kind of specialist assistance and specialist knowledge that they will need to successfully run a ministry. And that includes the public service, but it also includes members of the political party or people who are prepared to work with the political party that is in government to give them that expertise, to give them that assistance. And I think that is the kind of role that if anything that I would probably be playing.”
While Esquivel has been mentioned as a potential minister of finance in any UDP administration, he pointed out that under the constitution that is the one portfolio that must be held by an elected member of the House of Representatives.
