Patrick Faber must go, and he must go now. That’s a firm individual position taken by the chairman of the United Democratic Party, amid another scandal involving the embattled Leader of the Opposition. It follows a police report that was filed by Faber’s fiancé on Wednesday alleging she was struck with a hammer and had her laptop destroyed during a physical altercation at the couple’s residence in Lord’s Bank. Dr. Shanika Arnold has since recanted her statement and has indicated to the Commissioner of Police that she will not be pursuing any further action against her fiancé. While that may be so, the political fallout and backlash that Faber is facing from within his party is once again threatening to unseat him from his leadership role in parliament, as well as the U.D.P. This afternoon, Chairman Mike Peyrefitte spoke candidly with the media, sharing his perspective on the matter. For starters, Peyrefitte reflected on the events of 2021 which saw an unsuccessful recall convention, amid a similar firestorm that the party leader was facing. It’s the kind of déjà vu that saw the party virtually imploding under the weight of allegations of domestic abuse at the hands of its leader. Peyrefitte is fervently calling for Faber’s resignation.

Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, United Democratic Party

“Given the circumstances, the party leader should resign as Leader of Opposition in the house and he should resign as leader of the United Democratic Party. Middle of last year we were here. There was an incident and I even told the media and the nation that from what we could see, the party leader hit a door and maybe he was frustrated and angry and going through some issues that we all go through in our personal lives, but it was extreme, in a way, what he did. He said mea culpa, he said he was going to get some help and we all accepted that and said let’s move on. The condition that I had put on the situation was, this could not happen again. Well it has happened again and let me be very clear, whether he is guilty or innocent of what was said against him in a statement, that is for a court and a judge to decide. That’s not for me to decide, but my position is that there is too much smoke for there to be no fire. Dr. Arnold gave a statement and that statement clearly indicates that she was harmed by the party leader to the point where charges of assault and destruction to property have been brought against him. A warrant was issued for his arrest and I think that under the circumstances, if the party leader loves the U.D.P., the way he says he does, in the interest of the United Democratic Party he needs to resign from his positions in the party so that we can salvage what we have of the party and move on and start to rebuild again. The people of Belize are not going to tolerate a United Democratic Party whose leader is consistently involved in domestic violence situations. We cannot expect the people of Belize to believe in us, we cannot expect our women, our daughters, our sisters, our brothers to respect and support the U.D.P. under these circumstances. So I repeat, in the best interest of the U.D.P., the honorable Patrick Faber should resign, and that is my position.”

Faber Can Only Be Removed by a Two-thirds Majority

On the matter of a course of action to be taken by the party executive, we asked the chairman of the U.D.P if the decision making process would involve delegates and others within the party’s hierarchy. Here’s how he responded.

Isani Cayetano

“Is it only the decision of the convention to have him removed or would the wider, how would I say, if there are delegates or there are other people within the party who wield a certain power would be a part of this decision making?”

Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, United Democratic Party

“The people who are elected to the post within the leadership of the party, leader, first deputy, second deputy, vice chairman, we either resign or a majority of the delegates would have to trigger a special convention to have us removed. So a number of voices can’t get together to make him move, it has to be an official trigger to have any of us removed from our elected posts, unless we resign first. So it’s either we resign or we are removed by the two-thirds majority of the delegates in question.”

Channel 5