Former P.U.P. chairman says he’s ready for leadership
And while the Barrow administration is calling for an explanation from Said Musa and members of the former Cabinet, the People’s United Party is focusing on internal matters, that is the election of a new party leader. On Friday Francis Fonseca was one of three candidates nominated to succeed Said Musa. Like his opponents, today Fonseca advocated for change and reform but says his character will give him an edge in the election.
Francis Fonseca, Candidate P.U.P. Leader
“I believe my integrity speaks strongly for me, my character, my ability to bring people together and my capacity to listen. Many people in our party always say that about me and to me; that I listen to them. I am able to build consensus and hopefully that is what I can do as party leader, bring our people together, build a consensus and move forward with a clear new vision. You don’t have to make a false choice between loyalty to your party and a commitment to change. I am committed to both. I am loyal to my party as well I understand the importance of changing and reforming and bringing in new people into the party.”
Janelle Chanona
“If that is your strength, what would you single out as your weakness?”
Francis Fonseca
“Well my weakness is the entire campaign against me by my, the opponents challenging for leadership is that I am a part of the status quo as they say, the establishment so to speak. But the test of leadership Janelle is to prove that you are capable of changing, that you are capable of making change, you are capable of embracing change in your party. And that is what I’m about in all my ministries I have been about reform, about change, advancing new ideas and new vision and I believe I can do the same thing with the party.”
Janelle Chanona
“Looking at the wider electorate who perception or not focused a lot of their anger at your cousin Ralph and his name, how do you think the name Fonseca will fair with the wider electorate?”
Francis Fonseca
“I am very proud of my name, nobody will ever get me to apologize for my name. I come from a family that has given tremendous public service to this country, my own father was a teacher for many, many years. He worked in rural communities across Belize, particularly in the deep south, San Antonio, Toledo and areas like that. He spent many years of his lifee here. And of course, later on in life he became the Chief Education officer and retired from the Public Service in that post. My uncle Rafael Falo Fonseca who was the Financial secretary of Belize for many, many years under George Price. Those men are men of impeccable integrity, they have excellent reputations, people speak well about them across the board, P.U.P.s, U.D.P.s, otherwise and I am very proud of that history. And I believe that I can stand on my own as well. Francis Fonseca can stand on his own. As I said, earlier people can look at my record over the last five years and I challenge anyone to bring any evidence that Francis Fonseca in any way acted corruptly during his term in government or did anything at all to challenge his own integrity. So I feel very proud about that and I am not afraid of that attack.”
The respective campaigns of all three candidates are well underway but a sticking point early in the race is the issue of expanding the list of delegates that will actually vote in the convention. According to Fonseca, he supports the general principle of the idea but says it must be part of a comprehensive review and in tune with the party’s constitution.
Francis Fonseca
“I’m not opposed to wide representation. I am completely in support of a fair, free, democratic convention but as I travel across the country meeting with delegates and standard bearers I hear many different ideas on this issue. Some people want one delegate for every ten votes. Some people want one delegate for every fifty, some one for every seventy-five. There are many different ideas on this issue. So, one particular individual does not have the right to demand and say unless the party accepts my proposal, that I will not participate in the leadership contest. I don’t believe that is the way. I think we need to have a comprehensive review of the constitution, traveling our country. The new leader will have to undertake that challenge, getting the consensus of people all over the country about what changes they want to make to the constitution. The delegate issue is just one of many reforms that we have to make to the constitution of the P.U.P.”
According to a press release issued this afternoon by his campaign office, when he accepted the nomination to become party leader, Fonseca tendered his resignation as chairman of the P.U.P.
