The Senate met today and we will come to all the debate on the Belize Territorial Referendum Bill 2019. But first in the course of the debate, Senator Eamon Courtenay dropped a bolt from the blue to add to the cries of the politicization of the I.C.J. referendum campaign. While the P.U.P. and U.D.P. have […]
Senator Courtenay went on to expose what seems to be a clear misuse of Tamai’s post as Chief Elections Officer. Eamon Courtenay, Lead P.U.P. Senator “What was wrong was that because Mr. Bradley is a well-known member of the United Democratic Party his complaint to you seemed to have been given special significance. Ms. […]
While all that information was revealed in the Senate, this evening, Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai responded to the claims contained in the letter by attorney and former U.D.P. Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley. Tamai was not able to share the specific contents of the case because the matter is before the Public Service Commission. […]
In the letter, Bradley, on behalf of Jerrylyn Bruce accuses Tamai of political victimization and demands that it cease immediately. Bruce who has been transferred to the central office and given new responsibilities is also demanding that she be reassigned to her post in the field so that she is able to do her job. […]
The Chief Elections Officer also responded to the assertion that the Naboo Online System has an automatic feature of trying to correct itself and deleting any duplication instead of flagging them for correction. The Naboo System is an online programme, which collects all applications, but the issue that is highlighted in the letter is that […]
A vote by division in the Senate came shortly after four o’clock this afternoon following passage on Friday of the Belize Territorial Dispute Referendum Bill 2019. The vote ended in a strong yes: there was one abstention, four no’s and eight voted in favour. The Senate then recessed for committee meeting to fix all the […]
A new referendum bill was introduced and taken through all its three stages in the House of Representatives. The special sitting started after ten this morning and continued well into the evening. Debate was robust, at times emotional and even produced an abstention from former prime minister Said Musa, an individual rare vote hardly taken […]
The Belize Territorial Dispute Referendum Bill, 2019 was described as a kneejerk reaction by the Opposition to two separate court rulings in a week. The P.U.P. pointed out that the new bill would not have come to the House if the Special Agreement was debated prior to it being signed back in 2008. But the […]
One of the main concerns expressed by the Opposition Party is Section Three of the referendum bill. That section states that “a referendum shall be held to enable electors to vote on whether the Government of Belize should, in accordance with the Special Agreement and the Protocol to the Special Agreement, request the International Court […]
Also weighing in on the heated debated today was the very vocal Lake Independence Area Representative, Cordel Hyde. Hyde, in responding to the tabling of the bill, broke down the opposition’s concerns to the common person on the street. Part of his presentation focused on the risks associated with taking the case before the I.C.J. […]
The claim that has been brought before the Supreme Court by the People’s United Party persists, despite the passage of a new piece of law which will allow government to proceed with an I.C.J. referendum in the coming weeks. During his presentation this afternoon, Cayo South Area Representative Julius Espat, one of six claimants who […]
In what is expected to be a critical Sitting of the House of Representative on Friday, the Barrow administration is proposing to table the Belize Territorial Dispute Referendum Bill, 2019. The portion of the bill was leaked to the media on Wednesday night and this morning the Opposition People’s United Party received the complete document. […]
As Briceño notes there is still a case before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin which is scheduled to proceed on Monday when the Senate is scheduled to meet to ratify the proposed new bill. Briceño alluded that certain sections in the new referendum bill can be legally challenged. He zoomed in on section three which states […]
P.U.P. Leader John Briceño also countered the Prime Minister’s accusation that the opposition is purposely delaying the holding of the referendum. Briceño says that his party has the moral and legal obligation to the country to ensure that this process is done properly. John Briceño, Leader, People’s United Party “We are not deliberately delaying […]
So will the P.U.P. attempt to block the passing of the bill on Friday? And what about Said Musa who was absent for today’s meeting and Senator Valerie Woods who, like Musa, is a proponent of the I.C.J. Briceño says that the party’s consensus today was to not support the bill as it is. […]
And one more thing on the referendum….late this evening, a joint statement was issued by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In the wake of the postponement, the three appear not to be happy with the court’s outcome, but voice support in favour of the referendum and hope that […]
Illegal cattle ranching is just one of the threats to the Chiquibul forest; the area is remote, but it is rich with the most precious natural resources. On a daily basis it is plundered and the human and financial resources to manage the forest are slim. Rangers of Friends and Conservation are on duty doing […]
A shooting in Belize City left a man injured. It happened earlier this afternoon at around two thirty in the North Creek area. The victim has been identified as Joshua Gallego. According to reports, Gallego had dropped off his common-law wife and as he was driving off, a man inside another car released a barrage […]
Were it not for the stunning results of well-timed legal hurdles placed in the way of government, Belizeans across the country would have been anxiously anticipating the results of a referendum this evening, having voted Yes or No to go to the International Court of Justice. An interim injunction granted by the Chief Justice a […]
On Tuesday, a student was tasked to draw a map of Guatemala in a village school. At the request of Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, the primary school boy complied in front of his classmates, but President Morales provocatively told him he missed two very important things. One of those things was Belize. President Morales was […]
As the House prepares to meet on Friday and the Senate on Monday, it is still not clear what specifically government will be doing to ‘fix’ the problem that was flagged by the Supreme Court in respect of the writ of referendum. Attorneys for the government are said to be busy drafting legislation, which when […]
The vast Chiquibul Forest in the south-western region of Belize stretches across more than four hundred and twenty-three acres of land. The tropical rainforest includes the largest cave system in Central America, the Caracol Mayan Site, and the Chiquibul River. It is an invaluable natural resource, but the Chiquibul continues to be raped by Guatemalans […]
Thirty-three-year-old Fabian Laurie, twenty-five-year-old Pedro Colomer and two others identified as Kevin Hernandez and Jerille Laurie remain locked up in a Guatemalan prison tonight after appearing in court in Puerto Barrios earlier today. The men, all Belizeans, were busted on Saturday in Livingston where they were found in illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. Fabian […]
The same cannot be said for Pedro Colomer, a coast guard officer from Dangriga. His fate is entirely up to the Guatemalan justice system and his bosses here in Belize aren’t lifting a finger to go beyond wishing him well. That’s because Colomer failed to show up to work in Belize City last Friday; neither […]
Police in Hopkins Village wasted no time on Tuesday when they promptly acted upon information that a drug deal was about to go down in neighboring Silk Grass. At around midday, the residence of sixty-year-old Jose Nolberto was stormed by a team of officers. Inside the house at the time of the raid was forty-four-year-old […]
