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We asked UDP Party Leader Dean Barrow for his reaction to all that bombast today:

Jules Vasquez
"Francis Fonseca, the Leader of the Opposition, and Mrs Schakron put it all on you saying that you are afraid of her. The whole weight of the State has come against this woman, saying also that, in fact, it will backfire on the UDP for going against this woman."

Dean Barrow - Leader, UDP
"I really don't understand that. You have played the archival footage which shows that not only can't the PUP and Schakron claim ignorance of the law, it shows that when we try to change the law, when - if we had been able to secure the support of the people - we would have amended the constitution so that Schakron would not have been labouring under this disqualification. It was the PUP that was up front and center insisting that if we did that, they would try to provoke some kind of a mass revolt. How can they turn around now, in face of the historical record, and try to maintain Schakron's candidacy, and when they fail, say that it is the fault of the UDP? Man, it really boggles the mind. Words fail me. hypocrisy to the max, and they've gotten their just desserts."

Jules Vasquez
"However, couldn't it be arguable that man, the woman is renouncing, the process is underway, it will be finished if not by election, pretty soon after election, let it slide?"

Dean Barrow
"It could not be so argued because all the case law from the Caribbean makes clear - all the authorities make clear - that if you are a dual citizen at the time of nomination, you are not qualified to be nominated."

Jules Vasquez
"What is the status of your party in terms of the objections that have come about today?"

Dean Barrow
"The richest one is Cayo West. I heard Oscar Sabido, the PUP Candidate, on the air - now this is a lawyer who is a senior counsel - saying that I objected to Contreras because I have heard - I think he took it up a notch and said - I have been reliably informed that he is a dual national. Man, this is a senior counsel saying that he is going to object on the basis of hearsay? The measure of the desperation of the People's United Party - I hear that in Belize Rural North, the argument is that Mr Castro has a US green card. That is not a disqualification. I don't know whether that is true - it may well be true, but that is not a disqualification. I gather that it is the same charge being levied against Orlando Burns. If these people have green cards, you can make what you will of that, but that is not a legal bar to be nominated. It is not a legal bar to sitting in the National Assembly."

Jules Vasquez
"But that is splitting hairs because isn't the spirit of the thing that when you are a representative, you should be - 'You dah fi yah.' And you shouldn't be beholden to any place else even though the green card does not require an oath."

Dean Barrow
"That is exactly so and, Jules, I am saying. You know me; I always try to be balanced. I'm saying that you can make something of someone having a green card, morally. Politically, that's fine, but I am saying that legally, that is absolutely no barrier."

Jules Vasquez
"Because no oath is taken?"

Dean Barrow
"Indeed, because the constitution, by the words of that section, makes clear that you must have sworn an oath of allegiance to a foreign power."

Later on in the news, we'll have an interview with UDP Belize rural North Area Representative Edmund Castro about his green card.