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The National Alliance for Belizean Rights (NABR), formed as the Patriotic Alliance for Territorial Integrity, was a
political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
in
Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...
in the 1990s. The party colour was
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.COLOR ASSIGNED BY PARTY/CANDIDATE
Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission The Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission is the primary electoral body in Belize. It supervises all local and national elections. The commission also establishes the boundaries of Belize's electoral divisions. Formation and duties The EBC w ...
. (accessed 25 November 2014)


History


Formation

In September 1991,
Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...
, after nearly two centuries of denying the right of Belize to exist, seemed to recognize Belize as a sovereign nation. As part of the new harmony between the nations, a draft Maritime Areas Bill was introduced in the House in November 1991, limiting Belize's coastal rights in the far south and guaranteeing Guatemala access to the sea. Both major political parties, the
People's United Party The People's United Party (PUP) is one of two major political parties in Belize. It is currently the governing party of Belize after success in the 2020 Belizean general election, winning a majority of 26 seats out of 31 in the Belizean House ...
(PUP) and United Democratic Party (UDP), supported the measure as a way of ending the claim.
Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
Manuel Esquivel Sir Manuel Amadeo Esquivel (2 May 1940 – 10 February 2022) was a Belizean politician. As leader of the United Democratic Party, he served as Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989, and then again from 1993 to 1998. His party's victory in 1984 was ...
and UDP Deputy Leader
Dean Barrow Dean Oliver Barrow, SC PC (born March 2, 1951) is a politician from Belize who served as prime minister of Belize from 2008 until 2020 and as leader of Belize's United Democratic Party. An attorney by profession, Barrow served as Belize's ...
toured the country with sitting Prime Minister George Price in bipartisan support of the bill. However, certain elements in the UDP, led by longtime Albert Area Rep.
Phillip Goldson Philip Stanley Wilberforce Goldson (25 July 1923 – 3 October 2001) was a Belizean newspaper editor, activist and politician. He served in the House of Representatives of Belize as member for the Albert constituency from 1965 to 1998 and twice ...
, refused to grant Guatemala any concessions without an explicit dropping of the claim, and broke away in 1992 to form the NABR. Other notable defections included
Freetown Freetown is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educ ...
Area Rep.
Derek Aikman Derek Aikman (15 November 1959 - 2 March 2019) was a Belizean politician. He served in the Belize House of Representatives as an area representative for the Freetown constituency in the 1980s and early 1990s. Life A relative political newcome ...
and former Area Rep. and
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Hubert Elrington Hubert is a Germanic masculine given name, from ''hug'' "mind" and ''beraht'' "bright". It also occurs as a surname. Saint Hubertus or Hubert (c. 656 – 30 May 727) is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers. ...
. Observers thought the UDP had lost credibility in allowing its elder statesman, Goldson, and these up-and-comers to leave the party. The Patriotic Alliance for Territorial Integrity was formed on 1 December 1991 to respond to the Maritime Areas Act formulated to solve the
Guatemalan claim to Belizean territory Guatemalan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Guatemala * A person from Guatemala, or of Guatemalan descent. For information about the Guatemalan people, see Demographics of Guatemala and Culture of Guatemala. For spec ...
. The PATI dissolved into the National Alliance for Belizean Rights on 27 January 1992. In the ''Alliance Weeklys first issue on 11 March 1992 (the Alliance was an NABR newspaper), the NABR claimed that a third party was needed because the major parties were corrupted from top to bottom, ignored ordinary Belizeans and intended to turn the country into a "two-party political dictatorship". In late 1992 Aikman was declared bankrupt and expelled from the House, triggering a by-election in Freetown. This gave the NABR the chance to win its first election when the by-election took place in January 1993. However its candidate, Adelma Broaster, finished a distant third. In the city council elections in March the party also failed to win a seat. A frustrated Goldson began to draw ire from Belizeans used to solutions for getting out of troubles such as these. So when old foe Price surprised observers by calling
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
early in June 1993, the NABR jumped at the chance to reunite with the UDP. The UDP-NABR coalition received fewer votes than the PUP, but won a majority of seats – 16 to the PUP's 14. Of the sixteen seats, fifteen were taken by the UDP and one (Goldson in Albert) by the NABR,Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p106 giving the party its first and ultimately only elected area representative. Goldson received a cabinet post and the NABR demanded that the now Maritime Areas Act be repealed.


In government

The NABR found that its views were in the minority in the 1993–98 UDP-led Esquivel government. With Aikman out of office and Elrington having rejoined the UDP prior to regaining his former seat in Lake Independence in 1993, Goldson struggled on alone. Included among the NABR's setbacks were the UDP's refusal to repeal the MAA, the resurgence of the claim as a result, and Goldson's troubles as Minister of Immigration, when a passport scandal was uncovered in 1995 and 1996. Goldson – who was in declining health by that time – stood down in 1998, having never lost an election in Albert. The men who had originally joined him, Aikman and Elrington, both ran under the UDP banner in 1998 but lost badly in that year's PUP landslide victory. Goldson never recovered from the NABR years. While Belizeans still revered him, his health deteriorated further and he died in October 2001.


Decline

Despite Goldson's retirement and its other notable members reconciled with the UDP by 1998, the NABR struggled on. They ran alone in the 1998 elections but received only 174 votes nationwide, or 0.21% of the total. The party became effectively defunct after the election.


References

{{Authority control Political parties established in 1992 Defunct political parties in Belize 1992 establishments in Belize 1998 disestablishments in Belize