P.U.P. to Vote for No Confidence Motion

Buoyed by the support of thousands at Sunday’s anti-corruption demonstration, the opposition People’s United Party is stepping up its pressure and now going to a Special Sitting of the House of Representatives next Thursday, where it plans to move a motion for a vote of no-confidence against the PM on the basis that they have no confidence that he can manage the affairs of the country.  According to our records, no such motion has been presented in the House before and the Opposition will need the support of four other parliamentarians from the government side for it to pass.  The Opposition is citing the unlawful spending by the PM, as Minister of Finance, of one point five billion dollars which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional and void.  They also do have no faith that the PM will pursue any investigation into the allegations of bribery or other corrupt or unlawful acts by ministers or government officials, including former minister John Saldivar, arising out of dealings with accused fraudster Lev Dermen and Jacob Kingston. The Opposition says that the economy continues to hover dangerously close to recession, crime is completely out of control, major industries in Belize are in crisis, unemployment is at unacceptable levels and that crony political corruption is at the highest levels of government due to the incompetence and mismanagement by the PM.  But as we said, the Opposition is short of four votes and there is almost certainty that the vote will be strictly along party lines and will not pass. The motion is signed by John Briceño and Julius Espat. We got a reaction from former House Speaker Michael Peyrefitte this evening.

Michael Peyrefitte

Michael Peyrefitte, Former House Speaker

“I looked at it; I think it’s fatally flawed from the beginning.  You cannot speak about having no confidence based on a Supreme Court ruling that’s not been reduced to writing or there’s not even a consent order as to what the judge said in court.  So how on that basis can you bring a no confidence motion?  In addition to that, how can you bring a no confidence motion upon a court matter that is still live when the standing orders of the House specifically tell you that you cannot debate nor talk about any matter that is before the Supreme Court that could influence the Supreme Court?  So that’s wrong from the beginning.  The second part about John Saldivar and this is unfortunate because the Leader of the Opposition knows this, you cannot speak on the conduct of any member of the National Assembly, especially the House, without a separate proper motion for that.  You cannot hide that under a no confidence motion, you have to bring that as a completely separate motion which they have not done.”