From Lady Z to Lady ZERO

She rose to fame leading into the 2006 municipal elections when Belize City residents endorsed her as the favourite to run the old capital and then voted for her overwhelmingly at the polls.  But since Zenaida Moya Flowers got into office, City Hall has been besieged by allegations of sweetheart deals, bloated contracts, mismanagement of public funds, misappropriation of public funds, missing money, corruption and complete incompetence. In fact, she still faces 24 criminal charges before the courts.

And as if that weren’t enough, she has now been expelled from the same party that polished her and propped her on their political pedestal for the 2006 municipal elections.  She was the UDP’s golden girl who brought in the full slate.  But just months into her first term there were signs that this golden girl lacked the wisdom, the honesty and the integrity to run a growing city which she was elected to serve.  When former Councillor Mark King blew the whistle about her on grounds of mismanagement and alleged corruption no one paid it much mind.  Zenaida still had the support of most of her peers and many of the voters.  In fact that proved true when she destroyed her arch rival for the mayoral seat, Anthony Michael, and then went on to again win at the polls in 2009.

But by then there were more political woes being added to the list of controversies: questionable contracts to family members, single-handed and unilateral decisions without Council’s consultation and approval, and then of course, the famous “under-depositing” scheme which would be the start of her fall from grace.

On October 1, 2009 when she was arraigned in Court on 22 counts of uttering a false document and violation of City Council regulations she gave a most stunning interview to the media during which she lashed out at her party leader, Prime Minister Dean Barrow.  Said Moya to an all too eager press “Everybody knows that I do not have a cozy relationship with the Prime Minister, with the leader of the party…this is something that we all know from the convention…Everybody know that Zenaida dah noh wah puppet.  And from the convention day they wanted to ensure that I was not the mayoral candidate for that party…I feel it that somebody doesn't have balls when they are going to come after me when I'm on my bed delivering a child."

These were the words that came back to haunt her.  The following weekend the UDP Party Council voted to ban her from taking part in Executive affairs of the party.  She challenged that in court and got an injunction in her favour, disallowing the party from implementing the ban.  But the most crushing blow in Moya’s political career came this week when word spread and it was quickly confirmed that she had been expelled from the party.  It came following a decision by the three member Ethics and Integrity Committee.

This week when reporters awaited Barrow as he left the Love FM Morning Show he said “…for some time the Mayor has been going in a different direction from the party and I had not seen anything that suggested a reconciliation was possible.” But Barrow also said it may not be too late for Moya ”…if there can be evidence produced of a genuine earnest desire to begin to act in a way that's consistent with the principles of the party, to begin to subject herself to party discipline, to begin to adhere to party principles."

Moya has not publicly made any comments since this latest event but she has 30 days to appeal and word is that she will appeal on grounds that she does not accept the grounds outlined in the letter of expulsion.

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Source: The Belize Times