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Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"And to say to them, we will live to fight another day and together we must move forward. To our supporters, I know its disappointing and many of you are down today, but as I said, we have to keep moving forward and as the leader of the People's United Party, I take ownership and full responsibility for the loss and I have to look at myself what can I do better, what should I be doing more, how can we strengthen whatever units and arms of the party we need to strengthen to make the PUP more effective. What are we doing in terms of our message as a party? Is that message getting across to the people of Belize? Is it getting across to the people of Cayo North? I think yes, people are feeling down and disappointed. Even though people knew the odds were stack against us. But I think our people in the PUP understand the circumstances of this by-election. I am not for predictions or guarantee, but I can guaranteed this to the Belize people and to our supporters that the People's United Party will form the government of Belize whenever the next elections are called. Whether it's called, in 2015, 2016`or 2017, the People's United Party will form the government of Belize."

But before he gets to the general elections, Fonseca will have to get past the municipal election. They're on Wednesday March fourth, just 7 weeks away, and the leader who doesn't like to make predictions, made another - but this one was qualified:..

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"There are other battles to come; the municipal elections are in a few weeks, in March and we now move on to that battle for the municipal elections. We will have the adequate resources that we need to put up a very effective fight in all 9 municipalities and I expect the PUP to do very well in those municipal elections. I am not one to make predictions, but I expect us to do very well in many of these municipalities."

But back to Cayo North, what will the PUP do now? General elections are fast approaching - and the party has to decide which way it will go after a huge and historic blowout. Today Fonseca would only say that Harrison is no longer standard bearer:..

Reporter
"Is a part of your assessment deciding whether or not you will continue with Mr. Harrison whenever the general elections is called?"

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"Well, Mr. Harrison was our candidate for this by-election and his candidacy has come to an end. So, yes, we have to look at Cayo North with fresh eyes. We will do an analysis as I said and coming out of that analysis as a party, we will determine how we will proceed with Cayo North, but Mr. Harrison is not the standard bearer in Cayo North. He was our candidate. He ran and he lost that election, the party will have to determine who will be our standard bearer moving forward."

We'll have more from Fonseca later on as Jules Vasquez challenges him on whether this loss is a failure of his leadership.