On Monday's newscast we had an interview with the PUP's Julius Espat, who has already been confirmed as Deputy Leader for the west - without any votes being cast at the national convention. Same for Kareem Musa. The first term representative has been confirmed as Deputy for the East - by default because no one else challenged for the post. Now the constitution of the PUP says nothing about regional deputies, but that's how they've been working it for a few years, and it seems the convention trumps the constitution. So, Musa is already deputy and is surveying the landscape to see which leader he wants to work with. Today he told us he has thrown his support fully behind Francis Fonseca - but is willing to work with anyone:...
Hon. Kareem Musa, PUP Deputy Leader
"As you know I put myself up for the deputy leader for the easts. It seems that I am not going to be contested, so I have a bigger role to play in the party now and certainly I have to be able to work along with anyone of those 3 gentleman; Mr. Francis Fonseca, Hon. John Briceno or the Hon. Cordel Hyde. So as a deputy leader I have to ensure that I can work with anyone of them at any given time and I have the utmost respect for all of them. But in terms of your question as to who I support, I can only support one unfortunately, because I think they all have very good qualities and each of us, each of the delegates that go to vote on January 31st - we have different standards, different tests that we apply and as a young politician, to me what is important is loyalty to party, loyalty to your people. To me that is very important. Being a team player, very important to me and to me the individual that best embodies those qualities of a leader that can build a team is the Hon. Francis Fonseca."
Reporter
"Okay Francis Fonseca has been the leader of the PUP. Under his leadership, the PUP has lost several elections. He decided to step down and in the later on would have stepped down from politics in totality. But now he puts his name in the race. Why would you support such a person?"
Hon. Kareem Musa, PUP Deputy Leader
"First of all you have to look at history. Dean Barrow as you know was party leader for the UDP for 8 years before the got a victory in 2006 - 1998 to 2006. UDP, they could not win at all. So, I didn't hear anybody saying oh Dean Barrow weak and we have to get rid of him. The party stays its course, they stay with who they believe is the best leader and they eventually won. Now Francis Fonseca as you know has only been the leader from 2011 - that only 4 years."
Of course, the comparison to Barrow is, at best, imperfect, since, when he became leader in 1998 the PUP was at the height of its powers, and the UDP was at the lowest point for any party in Belize political history. When Fonseca took over leadership in 2011, the UDP was about to scrape into a second term, and counter intuitively, only gained momentum after that.
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