Rejected! Recall petition fails

Black Immigrant Daily News

After a vetting process, 52 signatures on a petition aimed at recalling UDP leader, Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow were disregarded (due to retractions of support) or disqualified. Albert area representative, Hon. Tracy Taegar Panton, has stated, however, that “signatories to the recall petition can only be retracted on the Convention floor.” Alberto August, vice chairman of the UDP, stated at a press conference on Wednesday that the UDP Chairman “has acted unilaterally.”

by Marco Lopez

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 26, 2022 

The petition for the recall of UDP leader Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow, which was submitted by the UDP vice chairman, Alberto August, last Friday has, according to UDP chairman Michael Peyrefitte, failed to meet the threshold needed to trigger a recall convention after a vetting of the 201 signatures that were affixed to that petition. According to Peyrefitte, forty-three of the persons whose signatures were on the petition had requested that their signatures be removed from the petition, and 9 others were disqualified for varying reasons – resulting in the did not appear on the list of delegates. And thirdly, there were two persons, he said, who had resigned. While we might be inclined to concede the first four signatures, we can most certainly challenge the other five. But let’s say for example, in order to make a long process shorter, we concede all nine of those signatures. That is going to leave one hundred and ninety-one valid signatures, which is more than enough to constitutionally trigger a recall,”  August told local media.

He also addressed Peyrefitte’s assertions that some delegates might not have known what they were signing, since their signatures were not placed on the same pages that described the recall effort and the reasons for the recall.

“Now of course you will not have the heading on all the pages, because it’s 2 pages, so you had the attachments to it, and some of them signed on the third page that might have had the heading. But the entire document includes 2 pages of information. Although all we could have said was that you’re signing to recall the party leader, but we gave them 6 reasons as to why the party leader should be recalled,” he said.

Notably, the retractions of support by some who signed the petition were sent via those delegates’ personal e-mail addresses, and it appears that those involved in the recall effort are questioning the authenticity of those retraction messages.

In regard to what further steps might be taken by members of the party who are seeking to recall the UDP leader, August said, “That is the decision of the team to first seek legal advice on the matter. Probably, who knows, might be the commencement of another recall. We don’t know, because there is no limit for the conduct of any recall. If they want one name on each paper, then we will give them one name on each paper, because those same persons are prepared to sign again.” 

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