Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow Addresses UDP Defeat in Toledo East Bi-Elections

On the political front: Leader of the Opposition Moses “Shyne” Barrow held a press briefing this morning where he spoke about his party’s defeat in the Toledo East Bi-Elections. The United Democratic Party’s candidate, Dennis Williams, lost by over two thousand votes to the PUP despite weeks of campaigning. Barrow expressed confidence throughout the election but left the counting station in Punta Gorda before all the ballots were counted. Today, he spoke about the outcome of the elections and what it means for the opposition.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “It is not the outcome that we hoped for but I thank the candidate and his team for putting forward a valiant effort. I congratulate Osmond Martinez and his team. They did what they had to do and the people decided that it is Mr. Martinez that they want to represent them in the house of representatives. As the leader of this great United Democratic Party I have a responsibility to project confidence. I have a responsibility to fight for every seat. There is not one seat that I can just say, you know we will lie down.p Certainly there were many factors that led to a pathway to victory. But in politics, what you see and what you get don’t always correlate. But the fact that there was a division, we all know there was a division within the People’s United Party split in three ways. You had the Galvez faction that he wants to be area rep, you had the Melhem Espat faction where they were totally devastated by the convention loss, similar to Elvie Vega where she’s railing up on Facebook right now saying that she was shafted. And so those divisions were very real. And it was our hope where we’ve seen a collaboration, those forces be fruitful before as with the municipal elections because the results in municipal elections were not like this. We actually won the first recount for the mayor and then lost by 20. So, you know, it was a different candidate and we cannot discount the fact that you have a government with millions of dollars in resources.”

Barrow went on to speak about what he says are lessons learned from the outcome of the elections and why he believes the electorate supported the PUP.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “They made a compelling argument on the day of election with whatever it is that they were providing for the people and the people went with that. There was no way that we could compare to that type of funding. But we did what we had to do to at least give ourselves a chance for the people to consider our presentation. But, you know, politics is about time. We are in opposition. You know, when the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Briceño he’s talking big now but he is forgetting that he had to resign. You know, Dean Barrow was tearing him so bad, his own party was tearing him so bad that he stepped down right before the 2012 elections which had he stayed, he may have been the next Prime Minister. Right? So politics teaches you it’s about timing, it’s about resilience, and you have to stay the course but it also teaches you humility. It also teaches you that you can’t take the vote for granted. You can’t take people for granted. You have to work every single day, and it is local. You can’t listen to these propagandists and these straight-out liars that want to shift, blame, and focus from anything other than Toledo East. People of Toledo East, when they go to the polls, they consider what is in the best interest for them. And they obviously felt that it’s a PUP government and while the now area representative, Brother Martinez, said that they weren’t getting the help that they need the people obviously felt that the change will come with him because Mike Espat is not there anymore, so maybe Mike Espat wasn’t doing all that he had to do. I’m not saying that, just telling you that was the argument. And so now with Martinez that is a change. And so rather than change to the UDP who is not the government maybe we’ll get somewhere with Martinez.”