saldivar first joined the udp in 1993 and officially entered electoral politics in 1997 after he submitted his nomination to be endorsed as the new udp standard bareer for cayo south constituency in a convention and election. the former standard-bareer, melvin hulse sr. was thought to contest the convention (meeting), but declined the offer and resigned from the udp to join the national alliance for belizean rights (nabr). leaving saldivar to be endorsed. saldivar went on to face pup standard-bareer, agripino cawich. both saldivar and cawich were political newcomers. the pup was at the helm of cayo south for over 3 decades. so saldivar knew that defeating cawich would not be easy, despite the lack of his political experience.