But the real issue today was that Pitts' party leader appeared in court without an attorney. We pressed her on that issue today:
Jules Vasquez
"Would you concede a failure on the part of your party, insofar as, you all were stocked up with attorneys on the day of the takeover, I saw Mr Haylock, Mr Elrington, yourself at the headquarters, how could you make your leader appear in court unrepresented on such a fundamental matter of occupation of the headquarters, which is so potent and symbolic for your side?"
Sheena Pitts, Interim Chairman
"Now, I'm sure you can appreciate the way politics enjoys its place in our country. And if the other side could be honest with you, they would share likewise that it was no easy task to just pick up a phone and call somebody and secure. So what we decided to do, we want the best representation and we found the best representation outside of the jurisdiction. So it was a matter of regularizing that representation to make available, and we simply just did not have the time to do that."
"But all is not lost. We continue to do that and in in a manner of speaking, we go to round two."
Jules Vasquez
"Indeed, all is not lost, but a lot is lost. There's no way the leader of the UDP, the most dominant party of the 21st century should have entered a consequential hearing without the benefit of counsel."
Sheena Pitts, Interim Chairman
"Is it that you're inviting me to repeat myself, my good friend Jules? We've established that in order to defend the this matter properly, we seek and sought the best available and we decided to identify counsel outside the jurisdiction."
"And you made reference to "a lot is lost." And I ask you, what is that lot that has been lost? Because as I maintain, as we maintain, the national convention was held and by majority, the delegates voted who they want as party leader. That has not been lost, that has not been challenged."
"So we haven't lost anything. We have the opportunity proper for the Court to appreciate that the real, real issue is that convention and appreciating that the convention."
"That is a matter that is open for the nation of Belize to see how honorable Shyne Barrow will deal with it, so I am not the person neither are you to say what will happen to them. We will see what happens when honorable Shyne Barrow has an opportunity to address it. Two, on the issue of payment, the party organs are established distinctively that is the Wave and the Guardian and from what I understand there are bank accounts associated that are used to meet salary."
"Now those bank accounts carry with them signatories and the signatories are the persons who sign checks to satisfy salaries and as I understand it and was alleged that those signatories were precluded from signing checks to meet salaries and so we became aware of that on the morning, Friday morning when one of the employees of Wave radio properly frustrated disclosed that material fact as he was experiencing it."
"Now as you would know where we have no control over what that signatory does or what that signatory was instructed to do what we did as responsible leadership was meet the salaries of all employees."
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