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Barrow Says PUP Dancing On Diplomacy
posted (May 14, 2015)
And an "advantage" is just what the PUP was trying to get when they declared last week that they would not support a yes vote to taking the Belize Guatemala Dispute to the ICJ - certainly not while Wilfred Elrington is foreign minister. The PM said today they are playing cute:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I see now the Opposition trying to get cute with the issue. I see the Leader of the Opposition doing a kind of two-step, a dance that certainly doesn't impress me. I see his one-time foreign minister, who I check the Channel 7 archives, appeared at a public forum at Wesley Church with Fred Martinez and I don't recollect who else and I see where he had said 'look if you want to be saddled with this thing forever, the do nothing. But if we want a resolution as a country, the only way to get a resolution is to go to the ICJ.' And now see him do a complete about face and I see the Leader of the Opposition suggesting that, well we are ready for the referendum now and the only reason I say, as I have said to the Guatemalans "no sir, not this year, possible next year, perhaps second half of next year" - Leader of the Opposition says 'well that is because I am trying to ensure that there is no linkage between the referendum and the next general elections.' Exactly. These are two separate things and I don't care what he says, there will be no linkage."

And so, with the PUP now taking a position, the Prime Minister says the opposition is just catching up with his party:..

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Our position remains the same. There is going to be in terms of our party, in terms of the cabinet a conscience vote on this issue. A free vote. I've said that when we had the thing at the Fort George and I repeat, I am not afraid in terms of my own position. In a referendum I will vote to go to the ICJ and I am not going to do an about face because of political expediency. But, I don't know what the Leader of the Opposition thinks he is achieving. I can say the same thing. If I took a poll now, I would suspect that the majority of my cabinet would not vote the way I would vote. But, it doesn't matter and there is no need to take that sort of a poll, because the referendum will come when it will come after the general elections and the cabinet, the party officials like the rest of this country will be free to vote the way they see it."

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