BELIZE-Barrow was pleased with the High Court ruling.

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC—Moses “Shyne” Barrow, the leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), has welcomed a ruling by the High Court that gives him control of the party’s headquarters.

Last week, Barrow and several others filed an ex-parte application asking the High Court to immediately grant the former chairman, Mike Peyrefitte, custody and possession of the party’s headquarters.

“We are thrilled and extremely grateful for the decision of the High Court to grant this injunctive relief. We are grateful to the lawyer, of course…and we feel vindicated,” Barrow said.

“We are delighted that Belize is a place of rules and laws that must be complied with, no matter how right you think you are. There are procedural norms that must be complied with, and we were very confident that the High Court would comply with the case law, all the way to the Court of Appeals, as to how you treat matters. You can’t just come and be a political gangster and use violence and use might to have your way,” he added.

Barrow is fighting for the party’s leadership with Tracy Taegar-Panton, who heads a dissenting group that claims to be the legitimate leader.

Barrow and his team seek various forms of relief, which the High Court will address later.

Speaking with 5 Great Belize Television, Barrow said that the judge’s order “was that things would return to the status quo and that the property would return to the Central Executive of the United Democratic Party.

“In essence, acknowledging the claimants who came on behalf of the UDP,” he said, adding the building is essential.

“That is our headquarters. That is where we operate. That is where we have our party organs. I appreciate the spirit of the comments the party chairman may have made. Unlike the alliance, who marshaled a hundred people with force and aggression to take something they said was inconsequential. We abided by the rule of law.”

Regarding the party’s leadership, Barrow wants the High Court to declare who will lead the party.

Barrow is also seeking a ruling that Taegar-Panton has no legal or trust-based authority to possess the UDP. He also wants declarations stating that Taegar-Panton cannot remove the claimants from the headquarters and that she unlawfully took control of the Guardian Newspaper and Wave Radio, organs of the UDP.

The Court has set January 2025 for a case management session, and Barrow said he is also aware of the possibility of an election being called next year.

He insists that those dissident members are not “party members.

“These are people that have acted in complete circumvention of the United Democratic Party’s constitution, and I believe that what happened in the High Court, the decision that Justice Hondura made, really underpins the mindset and the behavior of these people, that they act outside of the constitution.”

Earlier this year, Barrow had written to the Speaker of the Parliament indicating that Taegar-Panton and at least two other legislators were no longer party members.

But she has since said she was elected leader at a special convention.

Last month, Police Commissioner Chester Williams said the police have no legal authority to determine who will occupy the headquarters and had urged the factions involved to settle the matter in a court of law.