“You guys are exaggerating”: Usher pushes back on $1 million convention claim
By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): The question of what Sunday’s convention cost is not going away. Opposition Leader Tracy Panton put the figure at roughly $1 million and used it to renew her call for campaign finance reform. PUP Chairman Henry Charles Usher says that number is inflated. “I don’t see that as being the […] The post “You guys are exaggerating”: Usher pushes back on $1 million convention claim appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
Black News 
By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): The question of what Sunday’s convention cost is not going away.
Opposition Leader Tracy Panton put the figure at roughly $1 million and used it to renew her call for campaign finance reform. PUP Chairman Henry Charles Usher says that number is inflated.
“I don’t see that as being the case,” he told reporters.
What he did not do was offer an alternative figure.
Usher acknowledged that conventions are expensive. He listed advertising, particularly television, along with banners, workers, tents, greeters, and the logistics of transporting hundreds of delegates on the day.
“Getting into politics is an expensive endeavor and you need resources to get it done,” he said.
That is precisely the point Panton has been making. Without campaign finance disclosure requirements in Belize, there is no way for the public to verify what was spent, who paid for it, or what those funders expect in return.
Roughly 787 delegates voted at ITVET on Sunday.
Should political parties be required to disclose what they spend?
The post “You guys are exaggerating”: Usher pushes back on $1 million convention claim appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
