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Melvin Hulse
"But Dean is trying to push it. He didn't even consult. Papa doesn't run in nothing. Dean is dictating. It's he who sets the time. He is calling it right away. Patrick, Audrey, all of them are running things. Spending over 2 million on a bi election gets you nowhere. It doesn't achieve anything, because you call elections in 3 months everybody and to go right back again."

"I've noticed that in my lifetime. You don't cut off your nose to spite your face. It's not always the time to go and... what you have to prove, but you could win a bi election if you have more money? I disagree when he did it with Omar. Why are you spending good money? You aren't helping the UDP."

"The only, only thing important to Dean Barrow is for him to go down in the history book as the only Prime Minister to win 3 terms back to back. That is the only thing important to him. Not loyalty to friends our country or anything. He wants to be in the history books as the only person to ever win 3 times back to back. Because he's beginning to sound more and more arrogant. It is beginning to sound... it making it sound they can't stop me, we are unstoppable. You don't tell people that."

"That's the worst thing to tell a Belizean." You can't do this, and you can't stop we" Not us Belizeans, we too ornery for this mah bwai, we noh like being pushed."

"Just shut up little bit, Christ man."

And apart from that he made some reckless allegations of impropriety by the Prime Minister - allegations for which he offered no proof and which the Prime Minister has said in a release is, quote, "a very serious piece of falsehood, a very serious lie that grossly libels me."

But what was Hulse thinking when he bad-mouthed his party leader to someone who was secretly recording him? Here's what he told LOVE Television in an interview yesterday where he did the first thing that the Prime Minister said he must: offer an apology:

Melvin Hulse
"Without any reservation, without any hesitation. I was made to understand that they mentioned Mahmud. Man, look here. I hope that this doesn't cause him and his family any flippin' thing. I mean I apologize, because it was never meant to hurt anybody and definitely, I will definitely apologize to Dean. Hopefully one day we will find out who took a private conversation and went and try hurt the man and put a bad spin on this man's reputation."

"You could imagine they aired something like this about the man's character, the man's integrity - you could imagine how his family must have felt? No man, without question I apologized to him and in the same token I can't leave just the PM by himself. I am a family member of the UDP - for a lifetime now and so this in turn makes the party looks bad, because they went to air some horrible things I said about the party leader. Now, we go from Prime Minister to Party Leader."

So, who was his confidant, and who recorded him? Well, that's one of the topics which Hulse was eager to discuss yesterday. He said that he believes that the recording was done when he was venting among a group of colleagues from his party, and that that conversation was never meant to be made public:

Melvin Hulse
"I really feel bad that in this country in this day and age now, man you can't even chat and vent your frustration about things and what not. Because being the type of person I am, I will run off and I will fuss and I will grumble because this is not happening fast enough and lands and electricity and this and that. Of course, I never expect in my wildest dream ... because when I am done I go right back at work and nothing changes - it's okay, I already took it out of my system... I will bite-up and run off about what people are saying and what not and make it something all flippin' and horrible, then I go back and continue the fight for the party."

"I am one of the family of the UDP party. But whichever one is my friend went and release it. I really feel bad about it because they had no right to subject our party leader to something like that and what not. Man, I talk about my wife, I talk about my father and I grumble about it and if they tape something - I would have to go and apologized to my wife for things like that. But definitely for somebody like our PM caliber, yes I bite-up and Dean has always known that, but without reservation - it's not something I ever would have said on any rostrum or TV or channel or anything. Just was bite-up with who I thought was my friend. They were biting up and I was biting up and they taped me."

So, now that the damage is done, does he stand by what he says? As we told you, it cannot be simply dismissed as idle chatter because Hulse is a senior member of the UDP who has been in the party for over 25 years - and has served at the ministerial level. He said yesterday that he was only repeating rumors he heard, and that he is currently not in any real inner circle to have any proof of what he was recorded as saying:

Ava Diaz, LOVE TV
"Some would say that the comments are a reflection of how you really feel. While you might have heard some of the accusations coming from the Opposition party - to hear them from somebody who is that close from within the family as you say, put a different spin on it."

Melvin Hulse
"The thing is that if it was anybody running off like this, it wouldn't count. But heck its Melvin Hulse, he is a UDP from birth. Yes, the thing is Ava, I am not in any cabinet or in any inner sanctum or anything. So when I am running off and I am throwing out all those numbers - man, exactly that is what it is... running off."

But it seems the Prime Minister isn't the only one Hulse has to apologize to. Today - statements - very rare statements purporting to came from two former PUP representatives named in the Hulse recording. They are both former Cayo North Representatives Ainslie Leslie and Joseph Mahmud. Hulse loosely implicates them as well as the Prime Minister in improprieties - and today we got a text purporting to be from Ainslie Leslie saying, quote, "aspersions against me by Mr Melvin Hulse a former UDP Minister for the Stann Creek West Constituent is a total Lie and fabrication, these lies demonstrate the warped mind of Mr. Melvin Hulse." End quote. And there's also one purporting to be from Joseph Mahmud. Now, Mahmud resigned as an area representative and didn't say a peep - so now we were very surprised to get a statement - via text message - purporting to be from him. It says, quote, "I wish to make it clear that the allegations made by Melvin Hulse against Me on the recording is totally false and baseless. I…entered politics with dignity and exited with dignity and…expect him to publicly retract the defamation against me."

Today the PUP issued a release saying, quote, "The...recordings confirm... that Prime Minister Barrow is so obsessed with staying in power that he will do anything to win a third term in office and cares about nothing else."

The release adds, "It is disgraceful that the Prime Minister, when faced with the public revelation of what everyone else already knew, should seek to gag the media with the threat of law suits."