Amid a sweeping PUP victory at the General elections, Moses “Shyne” Barrow has announced his intention to resign as Leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP). The announcement came after the party won five seats in Parliament, with the Tracy-Panton faction securing three of those five.
Significantly, Barrow himself was defeated in Mesopotamia, where he placed last in a three-way race. His opponent from the Tracy-Panton faction, Lee Mark Chang, won the seat with 601 votes, while the People’s United Party (PUP) candidate, Lawrence Ellis, secured 503 votes. Barrow, the incumbent, received only 318 votes, notably less than the 910 votes he had earned in the November 2020 election.
Acknowledging the outcome, Barrow stated, “I certainly will resign once we have a National Convention to elect a new Leader. Obviously, you cannot be leader of the United Democratic Party if you're not a member of the House. And I would not want to be appointed as a Senator to hold onto the leadership.”
Tracy Panton retained her Albert Division seat with 1,243 votes, inching over her opponent PUP’s Kaya Cattouse who obtained 1014 votes. Interestingly, the margin widened for Panton relative to the 2020 election when she only won over her then opponent (PUP’s Paul Thompson) by only 41 points (1271 to 1230).
Possibly as one of the most notable upsets in this election is the defeat of Patrick Faber in Collet, a division long since believed to have been a UDP stronghold. Faber garnered 1108 votes but his PUP opponent, Devin Daly, a relative newcomer to national-level electoral politics, won with 1271 votes.
Panton-faction’s Godwin Haylock also did well in Queen Square, earning 1,192 votes. The only two UDP members from the Barrow-aligned camp who won seats were Hugo Patt in Corozal North and Miguel “Mike” Guerra in Cayo West.
Ostensibly, the Panton faction’s strategy to challenge Barrow was aimed at shifting the internal UDP power dynamics. By securing three of the five UDP-held seats, Panton and her allies now control a majority of the party’s parliamentary representation, positioning them as the dominant force within the UDP.
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