And so who should the PUP blame for failing to gain ground since the municipal elections in March? After all, the months since that time have seen the release and ventilation of many issues that should have damaged the Barrow administration, and affected the electability fo their candidate. But there was hardly any slippage in Dangriga for the UDP between the municipal result and the by-election. We asked the opposition leader why the results are not tipping in his party's favour - even with all the flak that the Barrow administration is getting:..
Jules Vasquez
"Since the municipals, when the UDP got 60% there in Dangriga, the government has been hit with these successive attacks. You can start with the Edmund Castro undoing - the ignominious retreat in the Supreme Court. You can point to the Council of Churches, you can point to the Melvin Hulse case, you can point to the ongoing Petrocaribe issue. Yet they lost not hardly a percentage point of support in Dangriga. Is this an indication either that: a) UDP is, despite all these attacks, overwhelming well-liked or is it b) that the PUP is irresistibly unappealing to the voter?"
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of The Opposition
"Well I know which one you would choose. I think Jules, there is a lot of, if you like, corruption fatigue and a lot of scandal fatigue, if you like among our voters. You will hear that quite a bit. It's almost as if many of them have come to expect these things. I think that's a factor."
Jules Vasquez
"I find that laughable. There is no corruption fatigue in 2006 or 2008. Is there some inner logic in that argument that I am missing? Voters have always acted as they wish to. Thats the record from 1996 that I just quoted shows that."
Hon. Francis Fonseca
"I don't know that you've ask a question."
Jules Vasquez
"I am saying that there is no imperial evidence to support your assertion."
Hon. Francis Fonseca
"That's your view, that's your opinion sir."
Jules Vasquez
"But that's fact. That 1996, 2003, 2006 - when people want to vote a certain...."
Hon. Francis Fonseca
"I am talking about 2015. I am not concern about your version of the facts. If you want to generalize and form conclusions on the basis of these bi-elections or even the municipal elections, you are quite happy to do so on the historical record. I am saying that that will be properly tested in a general election across the country."
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