John Briceno Elected for P.U.P Convention

BELMOPAN Belize, Feb 2, CMC – John Briceno was elected as leader of the main opposition People’s United Party (PUP) saying he is prepared to lead the party into the government.

“I want to thank all of the people that came out to vote, and certainly both Honourable Francis Fonseca and Honourable Cordel Hyde were formidable candidates, but the people have spoken.

“We respect that and now we need to unite, we need to work and we need to get ready to form the next government under a People’s United Party,” Briceno said following his announcement of his victory following Sunday’s leadership Convention.

In the last general election, Prime Minister Dean Barrow won a record third term after calling a snap poll a year ahead of schedule in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country. His United Democratic Party (UDP) won 19 seats while the PUP had won 10.

Briceno defeated Fonseca who led the party into defeat in the last general election and who complained about the “undercurrent of bitterness, hostility and division which has ravaged this once great party.

“That negativity was alive and well in the campaign up to the Convention, and whoever becomes leader will need to do what hasn’t been done in over ten years…unite the PUP,” he added.

Briceno said he was confident that he had met over two of the 3,000 delegates during his campaign, noting that “there were a few constituencies where the former Standard Bearers and the representatives refused to cooperate with us, so that required more effort.

“But in a way it was better because it allowed me to go into the individual villages and meet four five delegates at a time, and allowed me to better connect with them when I was talking about the message – a message of hope, a message of unity, a message of bringing the PUP back into its winning ways.

“We put in the hard work, but as we always said at the end of the day it is the people who make the decision, the delegates. We ran a positive campaign. We ran a good campaign, an energetic campaign,” he added.

The election was the first time in the history of the PUP that its leadership will be determined by the delegates and political observers said that this is as a result of changes in the party’s constitution which dictates that the number of votes garnered by the PUP candidates at general elections will be divided by twenty- five to determine the number of delegates per constituency, plus seven.