UDP Rift Continues as Faber “Disrupts” NPC Meeting

The United Democratic Party’s (UDP) internal rift continues after another attempt to have a National Party Council. The meeting was held today at the UDP Secretariat on the Youth for the Future Drive in Belize City.

The meeting was aimed at reinstating members previously expelled or out of good standing and addressing other party issues.

According to party chairman Mike Peyrefitte, the meeting was disrupted when Faber entered the room uninvited. “Our meeting to vote back in members in the party who were not in good standing or who were expelled; we set our convention date. We are ready, set to go. But Patrick Faber somehow got into the meeting and tried to create a disruption.”

Peyrefitte said this caused the group to switch to a virtual meeting where members would lock in their votes for motions to be passed via WhatsApp.

The main resolution calls for reinstating all affected members except Faber, whose behaviour today Peyrefitte labelled as “disrespectful.” He said, “We are putting forth to the NPC to not have him return to the United Democratic Party, and I was the first one to vote to not bring him back to the UDP.”

Faber defended his presence, saying, “I am the former leader of the UDP and current senator for the party and the caretaker for the Collet constituency; therefore, no invitation is needed.”

He added, “Judgement said ‘the expulsion of Honourable Tracy Panton and, by extension, the other three persons’, myself included, was illegal, void; it never happened.”

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition Tracy Panton had also rejected the meeting’s legitimacy and cited exclusion from key decisions. “They are preparing the party for Tracy Panton, they say, but yet Tracy Panton cannot give her input on what is right for the party in terms of the list, and all we are asking is for them to do what they ought to do by the constitution of the party,” Faber said.

Despite recent talks of reconciliation, the party remains divided.