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 Belize’s next general election.
Salividar, who has recently been labelled 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 and when the final numbers were counted, Saldivar emerged victorious by a mere two votes, polling 42 votes as 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 made triggered an NPC meeting to review that decision,” said Mike Peyrefitte, UDP chairman.
He said the decision of the special committee was that Saldivar should not be allowed to contest the Belmopan convention that would determine whether he would represent the UDP in the next general convention.
“But the NPC voted on Saturday to reverse that decision and so the NPC’s decision is that Mr. Saldivar be allowed to contest the convention that would be coming up early next year. So that is where it is at this point,” said Peyrefitte, a former attorney general.
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 it made the original announcement that Saldivar “was “indicted or charged or anything.
“So we want to see what evidence they have so we as an organization can assess that evidence and think of a way forward. Whether they want to give it or not, we have an obligation to ask for it because you are making a very serious designation and, purportedly, you have information that a particular person acted a way 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 Briceño, 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.
CMC/
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