Faber Says John Saldivar is Ineligible to Run Again

Shortly before Shyne Barrow’s installation as the Leader of the Opposition, former Belmopan area rep John Saldivar took to social media to speak on the U.D.P.’s debacle.  In comparing the events of last year which saw him stepping down as party leader, Saldivar urged his political nemesis to do the honorable thing and resign as head of the United Democratic Party.  It’s a deliberation, he says, that he would follow through with were it not for his need to shepherd the party through these difficult times.  He also made it clear that since Saldivar has lost three general elections, the constitution of the party bars him from running in the general elections going forward.

Patrick Faber

Patrick Faber, Party Leader, U.D.P.

“That is a serious consideration that I have taken on and you heard me say in my prepared remarks that I did a lot of soul searching and I will tell you, and I will say to Mr. Saldivar via this press conference as well, that I, if it were for my own personal reasons and that if it were truly a decision that I could make on my own and that wouldn’t affect he wider party and the nation of Belize, I would walk away, I would walk away.  The burden of having your colleagues shoot you, stab you in the back, torment you, is not an easy burden. The name Caucus for Change originated back in the late 1990s I would say, 1999-2000, headed by the same John Saldivar trying to form a coup to depose the Honorable Dean Oliver Barrow.  Strange how politics makes for strange bedfellows now.  At no point upon my proceeding with the leadership of the party after the outcome of the general elections did I say to any of my colleagues you are banished from this party, you cannot run for this party.  If that message was communicated, it could only be to one person who lost three general elections, and the constitution sent that to him, not me.  In fact, it is the opposite and some have said that it may be the reason why I find myself in these troubled waters because I was not stern and swift enough to some of them, “this party does not need you.”