Prime Minister John Briceno will be going up for his 8th term in this coming general election. He has won 7 elections in a row in Orange Walk Central - and has two municipal elections under his belt as well - and it's a virtual certainty that he's going to get another term as area rep. But will it be his last?
The PM made known publicly today - what he has long been saying in private: that he plans to retire from politics after his next term, and so 2025 might be his final go at it.
But he emphasized that even though he will likely not seek reelection, he doesn't plan on becoming a lame duck prime minister if the PUP wins:
Courtney Menzies:
"While we would hate to see you go, how much longer do you think you'll be in politics?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Wow, "I hate to see you go," the punching bag. [laughs]. If you were to ask me now today, I would tell you that probably it's quite likely going to be my last election. At least, that's my plan, that's my hope and even within my family. But it's important that once you get elected, God willing we win the election, that I don't want to be in a position where people are saying, oh, he's leaving so let's start to plan and connive and whatever and I find that unacceptable. I have to continue to manage the party and more importantly the government the way that I have done with a firm hand and to continue to show that I have full command of the party and the government and the ministers and that's important or else we'll waste time fighting and not thinking about the government so I do plan to stay in and finish my term and then, I'm expecting and hoping that I can go and spend time with Celeste."
Jules Vasquez:
"But you don't want to be a lame duck prime minister."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"And that's exactly what I just described."
Jules Vasquez:
"Indeed, however, are you concerned that if you do not have a succession plan, which the UDP did not have a succession plan, they had a plan and then Dean Barrow abandoned it, the plan was to bring in Faber then the prime minister abandoned it. If you don't have a successor in place for a smooth handover, chaos ensues as we are now seeing in the UDP, all this is because they did not do an orderly succession."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I disagree with you in the sense that what has happened to the UDP, they had a very small bench. After Dean Barrow, who really could have taken over the UDP? I mean honestly when you think of it, with all respect to Mr Faber, he needed more and one of the most important things is financing, how will you finance the operations of the party? I do believe that the PUP is in a much better position, we have a deep bench if you want to say, from Francis Fonseca, to Cordel Hyde, Anthony Mahler, Kareem Musa."
Reporter:
"Is that your top four?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"No I'm just giving names right now, as I'm remembering I'm giving the name. When you look at somebody like Kevin Bernard, very good, the chairman of the party, these are really good strong people. Even Julius Espat, if he were to decide that's something he wanted to do, we have a deep bench so there's a lot from where to choose from but it's difficult for the party leader to say, okay this is the one we want."
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