A Renewed Call for Campaign Financing

While his stock went up on Sunday, Patt had a very bad day on Wednesday with the press. Today, he admits that the situation that befell former Cabinet colleague John Saldivar was avoidable had he chosen to come clean about the money he was getting from Lev Dermen.  When asked if he has second thoughts about joining Team Saldivar, Patt told News Five that while the situation is most unfortunate, the issue of campaign finance reform is of utmost importance.

On the Phone: Hugo Patt, Deputy Prime Minister

“In retrospect, we want to be thankful to all the delegates that supported us in the convention and as well for those who did not, we are here to show our support across the board.  In terms of the series of events, I think everybody has known what has been through the news and what decisions the prime minister has taken, so as much as I can say we respect what decision has been taken and from there we will move on.”

Isani Cayetano

“Do you have any second thoughts having joined this particular slate or lent your support to Mr. Saldivar in light of all that has happened since Sunday?”

On the Phone: Hugo Patt

“No sir, I think the situation with Mr. Saldivar was very unfortunate.  Look, I don’t think there is a party, a political party here in Belize that can survive without the sponsorship of either individuals or through entities.  This is the nature or politics in Belize, I mean solicitation for campaign financing is part of all political parties, not only in Belize but in the entire globe and so that whenever you meet individuals who in speaking to them without having a knowledge of particularly when you meet foreigners, you don’t know what their background is, you would think that these are genuine people so that whenever you get any kind of assistance for campaign purposes we go by basically what we are being told or if we do a background check in Belize many a times we would find that these individuals have not had any kinds of incidents in country.  I think in the case of John it was very unfortunate, he so happened to be sponsored by people who were doing illicit and I think that was one of the issues with John and secondly he did not admit that.  This is the nature of how politics operate and how political parties operate and this not unique to Belize.”