7 News Belize

Report: Tourism CEO Will Run For UDP In Albert
posted (March 23, 2015)
When we spoke to Prime Minister Dean Barrow right after the March 4th Municipal Election he said that he would not call an election this year. But, the emerging conventional wisdom is that he may do so early next year - and that timeline is surely supported by the schedule that the UDP has set for conventions in divisions with sitting area representatives. Those are: Albert, Caribbean Shores and Belize Rural North - where ministers of state will face challenges and could end up as lame duck representatives. The party had said it would defer these to within a year of the election, so that the sitting representatives - if they lose the convention - don't lie around lame for too long.

Well, we are now told those conventions must all be held by mid-June - so that surely suggests that the party is getting in gear for a general election.

We expect that Darrell Bradley will challenge Minister of State Santino Castillo in Caribbean Shores; Dwight Tillett will challenge Minister of State Edmund Castro in Belize Rural North, and Phillip Willoughby will challenge Minister of State Herman Longsworth in Albert.

But, there's a dramatic new wrinkle in the Albert race tonight. 7News has received credible information that CEO in the Ministry of Tourism Tracy Taegar-Panton will contest the UDP Albert Division convention. We asked her today by text message and she would only say that she cannot confirm.

But, our sources are sound and they say that Taegar-Panton has gotten support from the highest levels of the party. It would be a very interesting change in the divisional dynamic since she - like the current PUP standard bearer in the Albert - Paul Thompson, comes from the Mark Espat machine that racked up massive electoral victories in Albert between 1998 and 2008. But, more than that, Taegar-Panton has made her own name in the tourism sector where she has functioned at the highest official level for almost two decades. Additionally, as the daughter of Dr. Leroy Teager, she is a child of Albert - and of a PUP family, at that.

So, very interesting indeed - and we expect an announcement within days.

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