Less than a year after being elected to Belize’s House of Representatives, Shyne has now been placed into a new leadership role.
On Wednesday (June 23), the Bad Boy alum used his Instagram account to announce that he’d been appointed Belize’s Leader of the Opposition, a role described as commanding “the support of those elected officials that do not support the Government.”
He spoke on the occasion in the caption for the post, which features a news story about Shyne’s rise to the new role.
“I thank Hon. Hugo Patt (DPL) and Hon. Denise Barrow for the confidence they have expressed in me to serve as Leader of the Opposition,” Shyne writes in the IG caption. “I will continue to work diligently with Senator Hon. Michael Peyrefitte and all the Opposition Members of the House and Senate to hold this Government accountable and advocate on behalf of the People for better policy to make better the quality of life for all Belizeans.”
According to Channel 5 Belize, Shyne’s ascension to this post comes after video surfaced of previous Leader of the Opposition, Patrick Faber, running toward the mother of his 2-year-old daughter. Faber has now been removed from the post.
“It is not a matter of, well the video is not incriminating to the extent of filing criminal charges,” Shyne says of the Faber video. “It is clear what we saw in that video, there was a violent, there was a back and forth and a contemplation, then a violent surge towards a mother and her child. So we as an institution have to make a decision, do we protect Patrick Faber or do we protect the institution and our credibility and our quest to re-engage the public and to restore their trust and confidence in us so that we can be the alternative to what is happening now.”
Shyne, who is the son of Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow, has technically yet to be sworn in, but, as he notes, he has the majority of the support from his fellow Opposition members, so for practical purposes, he’s assumed the role. Watch the news report about Shyne’s new position below.