BELIZE-POLITICS-Saldivar wins round one of the battles to represent the opposition party in the next general election.

BELMOPAN, Belize, The National Party Council (NPC) of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), narrowly approved the candidacy of former national security minister John Saldivar to compete for the post of standard bearer for the party in the next general election.

Salvador, who has recently been labeled a significantly corrupt individual by the United States State Department, will come up against retired Colonel George Lovell and businessman Emil Torres to be the party’s candidate for the Belmopan seat.

Last weekend, the National Party Council met to determine Saldivar’s political future by way of a vote. When the final numbers were counted, Saldivar emerged victorious by a mere two votes, polling 42 votes against 40.

“The special committee had met and convened after the US designation of Mr. Saldivar. As a special committee, we made a decision, and then immediately Mr. Saldivar triggered an NPC meeting to review that decision,” said Mike Peyrefitte, UDP chairman.

He said the special committee decided that Saldivar should not be allowed to contest the Belmopan convention that would determine whether he would represent the UDP in the following general pattern.

“But the NPC voted on Saturday to reverse that decision, so the NPC decided that Mr. Saldivar be allowed to contest the convention coming up early next year. So that is where it is at this point,” said Peyrefitte, a former attorney general.

In a statement following the NPC vote, UDP leader Shyne Barrow said, “I categorically support the Special Committee decision to disallow the candidacy of John Saldivar in the best interest of the UDP.”

He said the NPC “decided to allow the people in Belmopan to ultimately decide the fate of John Saldivar in a standard bearers convention on February fifth, 2023. The NPC is the highest decision-making body of the UDP after the National Convention. Thus, as Party Leader, I am bound to yield to the democratic majority of the NPC,” he added.

Peyrefitte said he had no qualms with the position adopted by Barrow.

“We’re a democratic party, and the leader took a position. He’s entitled to a position. He’s entitled to his opinion. But like he made clear to the National Party Council afterward, that he took a position, but the decision of the NPC is the decision of the NPC, and nobody is bigger than the NPC,” he said.

The UDP chairman said he does not see the situation as “any weakening of anything at all,” adding, “as a matter of fact, we see it as a strengthening of our processes and the way we do things, and democracy is messy at times, it’s not the neatest of stuff at all, but the NPC had its say and then now the people of Belmopan will have their say.

“We can’t imagine a better outcome than that. Whatever the NPC would have said, Mr. Saldivar made it clear that if the NPC says he can’t run, he can’t run. If the NPC says he can run, he can run. Nobody necessarily won or lost on Saturday. The people of Belmopan will have their say, and that’s as much about it as anybody should make of it,” Peyrefitte added.

Last month, the UDP wrote to the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, requesting evidence to prove Washington’s claim that the former national security minister is a significantly corrupt individual, resulting in the North American country imposing sanctions on him and members of his family.

In November, Washington announced that Saldivar “accepted bribes for the improper acquisition of Belizean immigration documents and interfered in public processes for his benefit during his tenure as a government official.

The US Department of State said in a statement that section 7031(c) provides that officials of foreign governments and their immediate family members about whom the US Secretary of State has credible information of direct or indirect involvement in significant corruption, or a gross violation of human rights, are ineligible for entry into the United States.

“Corrupt acts such as these undermine the integrity of Belize’s democratic institutions and fuel perceptions of corruption and impunity, diminishing confidence in governance,” the State Department said.

Peyrefitte said Washington did not indicate when the original announcement was that Saldivar “was “indicted or charged or anything.

“So we want to see their evidence so we as an organization can assess it and think of a way forward. Suppose they wish to give it or not. In that case, we must ask for it because you are making a severe designation and, purportedly, you have information that a particular person acted away when they were Minister of Immigration for approximately three months.

”So we want to see what you have. We want to see what they have that not even the Belize Police seem to have,” the UDP chairman said, noting that the government of Prime Minister John Briceno, in office for the past two years, “haven’t revealed anything that they’ve seen that was illegal in the department during that time.”

Saldivar has also denied the US accusations.