De La Fuente’s biggest challenge will be unseating incumbent Kevin Bernard in March 2018. The head of Orange Walk’s town council is a two-time mayor who has been able to hold on to the office despite a majority of the municipalities across the country going red in the last election cycle. Reporter “Do you […]
The national women’s commission held a first of its kind women in politics conference today. The event, held under the theme ‘Empowered Women: Empowering Women for Meaningful Change,’ brought together women in political office as well as women of leadership roles in organizations and communities. With objectives to inspire, empower and educate so as to […]
This afternoon, the People’s United Party registered its disgust with the latest revelations. In a forty-five minute press conference at its headquarters, Independence Hall, leader John Briceño assailed the Prime Minister for his failure to act sooner and for what he called attempts to downplay the involvement of his ex-deputy, and set out a list […]
As the Prime Minister contended in our interview after the House meeting of August twenty-first, the transactions detailed in a prior set of leaked documents involving the Vegas appeared to be legitimate on the surface and “I don’t know that there is any actionable illegality there.” But he had previously stated that he had not […]
So what needs to be done differently to address the ‘hotbed of corruption’, as the Prime Minister himself termed the Ministry of Natural Resources to Belizean-Americans in Los Angeles in October of 2013? There have been several recent bills brought to the House of Representatives for first reading and the Opposition Leader today called them […]
Briceño also discussed the role of various Vega family members and acquaintances in roping off the Lands Ministry for their personal grab-tub, most notably former National Estate Officer and Justice of the Peace Darlene Padron, whom he alleges has done this many times before. It appears, he said, that this was a mostly internal cabal […]
Following his press conference, Opposition Leader John Briceño was questioned on several other burning national issues. The United Democratic Party this past Sunday held a contested convention for the post of Mayor and councilor for the Belize City Council that resulted in Dion Leslie being elected over Philip Willoughby and seven of the incumbent councilors, […]
The last word on Sunday’s United Democratic Party municipal convention in Belize City goes to the vanquished Philip Willoughby. He lost out to the better-heeled Dion Leslie for the mayoral position but just made it on the list of councilors, and earned admiration from many for persevering in the face of monumental odds. Today, he […]
Even though Willoughby is not at the top of the ticket, his decision to focus his race on promoting a “softer social” side of a council appears to have some traction with both the electorate and his erstwhile opponents. The council, however, focused on infrastructural and macro-economic gains. Willoughby told us that he will continue […]
2008 was the last time the United Democratic Party staged a contested convention for the mayoral nomination for Belize City; the U.D.P. has been in control of the City Council since 2006. That year, more than six thousand, six hundred voters cast ballots at the Belize City Center, and incumbent Zenaida Moya defeated her then-deputy, […]
Earlier today, we asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs about dubious campaign financing. Elrington says it’s not a charge that can be made against him since his political campaigns and those of his daughter Alifa are personally funded from monies he says he legitimately earned. On Sunday, Elrington’s youngest daughter offered herself for candidacy on […]
The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives met in session this morning in Belmopan to plot a course for investigation into the 2012-2013 Auditor General’s Report tabled in the House on August eighteenth. Chairman Julius Espat of the People’s United Party has campaigned for the hearings to be held in public as part […]
Espat is hardly deterred, saying he will continue to fight for publication of the Committee’s work before the final report is laid on the House’s table at some point in the future. But today’s result has spurred Espat to once again call for a bi-cameral joint special committee, inviting members of the Senate, specifically the […]
The United Democratic Party’s Belize City Council convention is set for Sunday morning at the ITVET grounds from ten a.m. to five p.m. It is headlined by the race to succeed Mayor Darrell Bradley, between incumbent councilors Dion Leslie and Philip Willoughby, and whether any of the incumbent councilors, a total of eight, will lose […]
There was minimal resistance from the Opposition at last Friday’s meeting of the House of Representatives to the amendment to the Town Councils Act, which allows for greater power of the municipal councils to obtain funds for capital projects. The reason ostensibly given by Prime Minister Dean Barrow for the rush-through of the bill is […]
The Government side was hard-put to defend the bill, with Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte accusing the opposition of playing politics with the issue. Dr. Carla Barnett pointed out that Government has issued no guarantee for the project and is not otherwise involved beyond the legislation. It had already done the kind of inspection necessary to […]
P.U.P. Senator Valerie Woods, having heard the prime minister’s response to former Foreign Minister Lisa Shoman’s open letter on Thursday, is also weighing in on the comment made by Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington. While responding to questions asked by the media last Wednesday, the chief diplomat reiterated that Belize’s borders are not internationally recognized and […]
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Lisa Shoman appears to have stepped on a few toes last week after writing an open letter to Prime Minister Dean Barrow, appealing to him to distance himself from comments made by Wilfred Elrington. Foreign Minister Elrington repeated in a news interview on August sixteenth, as he has said several times […]
Maheia also spoke to News Five about the re-registration campaign as it relates to the referendum to attend the International Court of Justice to resolve the Guatemalan claim. The Belize Progressive Party of which the BTV’s Maheia is deputy leader, recently met the United Nations Advisory mission visiting Belize to discuss the Guatemalan referendum expected […]
Belize City will host the United Democratic Party’s next convention to select a municipal slate for the 2018 elections due in March this coming Sunday. The headline is the mayoral race, the first since 2011, as incumbent councilors Dion Leslie and Philip Willoughby go head-to-head for votes. But whoever wins will be counting on the […]
The House of Representatives’ special session in Belmopan today was chock-full of news inside and outside. There were eight bills presented, one of which was taken through all its stages, and the Auditor General’s Annual Report for 2012 to 2013 was tabled. Our coverage begins with the audit, which was only tabled. It discusses in […]
The decision to postpone re-registration to 2018, after the municipal elections and before a planned referendum to the International Court of Justice, has raised hackles. Having waited twenty years, opponents say Belize should not wait a moment longer to clean up the voters’ list. But the Government maintains, according to Prime Minister Dean Barrow, that […]
The first issue raised on the adjournment of the House was the ongoing impasse between the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries Limited. The Association last month wrote the millers announcing that while it supports the investment of twenty-two million dollars for production of direct consumption and value-added sugars at […]
On Thursday, former Foreign Minister Lisa Shoman publicly criticized current Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington for his repeated statements suggesting that Belize does not have internationally recognized borders, especially with Guatemala. She went as far as to convey skepticism about Belize moving forward with resolving the unfounded claim at the International Court of Justice. But could […]
Formed last December, the Integrity Commission was intended to provide independent assessment of the assets of Belizeans in public life. But a few weeks ago it was announced that the Commission would only be investigating the declarations from the current year due to pressure from legal authorities and some parliamentarians. Anonymously citing two of his […]
