Shyne has officially lost his bid for reelection to businessman Lee Mark Chang, who also ran under the United Democratic Party (UDP). The election took place on March 12 and shortly after 9:00 PM, Shyne conceded defeat as the results showed that Chang won by 98 votes. Only 1,422 out of 2,253 registered voters turned out on election day. “The people have spoken; congratulations to Lee Mark Chang—he’s now the new area representative of Mesopotamia, and I wish him well,” Shyne told his supporters. “I was confident; that was the interaction I was having with the people, but they made a decision to go in another direction, and I respect that.”
With his victory, Chang becomes the first Belizean-Chinese person to secure a seat in the House of Representatives. Appearing on the Open Your Eyes morning show, he previously referred to Shyne as a “‘cancer.” “We need to remove the ‘cancer,'” he said at the time. “The people are realizing they have been bamboozled.” As for the future of the UDP, Shyne also said: “I certainly will resign effective once we have a national convention to elect a new leader. Obviously you can’t be a leader of the United Democratic Party once you’re not a member of the House. I would not want to be appointed as a senator or anything to hold on to the leadership... The people have spoken here.”
Shyne's Political Career
Shyne won a spot in the Belizean House of Representatives in the 2020 general election. A year later, he became the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives before eventually earning a role as the leader of the Belize United Democratic Party as well.
Shyne previously made headlines, last year, as the focus of the Hulu documentary, The Honorable Shyne. In the film, he virally alleged that he was merely the "fall guy" in the infamous 1999 nightclub shooting that resulted in him spending almost a decade behind bars before his return to Belize. "I was absolutely set up to be the fall guy. I spent ten years in prison but I was able to move on. There’s a time to pivot, there’s a time to transition," he said.
[Via]
