The contentious National Party Council (NPC) meeting of the United Democratic Party (UDP) is expected to take place tomorrow in Belize City.
Deputy Party Leader Hugo Patt has called on delegates to boycott the meeting.
Earlier this week, Patt urged all party delegates to stay away from what he labelled a “purported meeting,” and accused Acting Chairman Alberto August of defying his directive to postpone the meeting. Patt argued that more time is needed to properly verify the list of delegates and claimed the meeting is being held without proper consultation.
August has rejected the call for a delay and confirmed the meeting will proceed as scheduled.
Meanwhile, Moses “Shyne” Barrow maintains that he is still the legitimate leader of the UDP. However, August explained that Barrow’s leadership tenure “with effect from today is finite… The honourable Shyne Barrow, under the present situation, cannot, after the fifth of October, even purport to be the leader of the United Democratic Party, and I would just leave it at that.”
August told News 5 that Barrow has plans to amend the party’s constitution “that will make it difficult for any future leader of the United Democratic Party to have to go through what he went through while he was the leader of this party.”
August stated that Barrow is proposing that “If you want to remove your leader, then you must have reason to want to remove your leader, because it’s not anybody you’re talking about; it’s the leader of the party. And you must present that reason to the ethics committee of the party.”