John Briceño Explains Crowd, Says the Party Followed COVID Laws
The People’s United Party was heavily criticized this morning for gathering party supporters before nominations. A sizeable group of people gathered in front of John Briceño’s constituency office in Orange Walk before he proceeded to the nomination centre. On Tuesday, Commissioner Williams reminded political parties that the quarantine regulations prevent any gathering larger than ten persons at any given time. Williams said that the police will be out to make certain that the provisions of the quarantine regulation and any other laws are complied with. He then called on all political parties to act within the scope of the laws. Briceño says the party respected the COVID laws.
John Briceño, Leader, P.U.P.
“We are respecting the COVID laws. If you notice right here it is only the people. Now these are people the despite the fact that we called off the parade. Some people still showed up and when we were walking over here they still followed us. What can I do? What we did is to ask then to please make sure that we keep the social distancing and I am certain that the people that are complaining on Facebook are not supporters of the P.U.P. They are looking for anything to be able to complain. We have been responsible and we have done everything best that we can to be able to keep that social distancing for us to be safe.”
John Briceño
Reporter
“Sir, if the police should attempt to pursue you for any sort of criminal charges in the event that you had that entourage more than ten people accompanying you to the entrance there, is that of any concern that that could happen.”
John Briceño
“First of all, I did not bring them. They are not a part of my group but they are supporters and they decided that they are going to follow me. So if the police feels that they have to charge me well so be it but more importantly my group was the group to came in here and others decided that they want to walk and despite the fact that we are telling them that we need to be careful, despite the fact that we called off the parade. It just shows that people can’t, it is an exciting time. I mean for the first there is the possibility that we are going to have a prime minister outside of Belize City and for the first time obviously Orange Walk Central should I be elected and our party gets elected God first, it is a going to be a historic time and so I think that everybody wants to be part of this history. So as much as we ask them to kind hold back they come. I can’t stop them.”
