The Opposition People’s United Party did not expect to be consulted by the Government, as they have the social partners, for ideas on how to fix the shortfall in the 2017-2018 budget due in March. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have ideas of their own. For months, the P.U.P. has railed about the Government’s […]
The Ministry of Agriculture has stopped granting licenses for the importation of white potatoes. It says this is in benefit of local farmers whose production season of strictly red potatoes is now starting. The Ministry, with the help of the Belize Agricultural Health Authority and Customs, will begin a crackdown on the illegal importation of […]
The United Democratic Party issued a first salvo on Wednesday of this week against Senator Eamon Courtenay. Today, smack in the middle of an ongoing hearing unearthing corruption in the immigration department, it was the government to tighten the noose. In a release sent out this afternoon via the press office, G.O.B. went on the […]
The People’s United Party today issued a statement strongly supporting its lead Senator, Eamon Courtenay in the wake of a full-fledged U.D.P. campaign to remove Courtenay from the senate. The P.U.P. says that with the revelation that the Central Bank (International Immunities) Act has no teeth for enforcement in the U.S. and that Belize’s foreign […]
The ruling United Democratic Party has issued a call for the Opposition People’s United Party to remove its lead Senator, Eamon Courtenay, for what it calls an “outright betrayal of Belize’s national interests, and extreme conflict of interest.” According to the U.D.P., Courtenay as Senior Counsel filed a constitutional challenge to strike down the Central […]
Last week the People’s United Party complained of Government’s plans to postpone re-registration once again, this time to after the 2018 municipal elections. However, there are plans to proceed with re-districting of electoral boundaries. The Belize Progressive Party, the youngest of Belize’s political movements, blames both parties for putting the matter off when it suited […]
When we caught up with the Progressive Party chairman Paco Smith today, he also weighed in on Belize’s current troubles with the various arbitration awards under dispute here and in the United States. Like most, Smith believes the issue could have been resolved much earlier. That it can’t, he says, must keep Belizeans vigilant and […]
Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Special Select Committee will feature appearances from Edgar Cano, senior immigration officer; ex-C.E.O. in the Ministry of Immigration Candelaria Saldivar-Morter, and one other person. And while Belizeans are anxiously awaiting any new revelations to come out of the public hearings, the Belize Progressive Party is thinking of the long-term and […]
The Opposition People’s United Party was first off the mark in condemning a proposal by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to postpone the timing of re-registration of voters to after the 2018 municipal elections, but to conduct a re-districting exercise before then. One argument by the United Democratic Party is the cost, but today, P.U.P. […]
The decision by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to embark on countrywide re-registration and redistricting exercises after municipal elections are held in 2018 has raised the ire of the People’s United Party. On Tuesday, the P.U.P. issued a firm release calling for those activities to be conducted no later than July first, in accordance with […]
At this hour, a meeting of the Election and Boundaries Commission is taking place. It was called by Chairman Doug Singh to discuss several proposals related to conduct and practice for general elections. Singh and his Government colleagues are proposing to once again postpone re-registration of Belize’s hundred-thousand-plus voters to after the 2018 municipal elections. […]
The P.U.P. also says that it denounces any attempt by the Commission to carry out a re-districting exercise before a re-registration exercise, since such an exercise, in its view would be giving validation to the out-dated, fraudulent and padded voters’ list. The last re-districting took place before the 2008 general elections and saw shifts in […]
The voter’s identification card carries none of the shine of the passport, or Social Security card or driver’s license. Indeed, its sole use seems to be to identify a voter on Election Day. But that may soon be a thing of the past if the Elections and Boundaries Commission has its way. The Commission is […]
The Opposition People’s United Party is planning a press conference on Thursday of this week. On the agenda is a frank discussion of the revelations coming out of the Senate Special Select Committee and in particular from former Director of Immigration, Ruth Meighan. The most damaging of those statements is her admission that of the […]
While the party awaits its turn to address the single biggest revelation coming out so far from the Senate Special Select Committee, deputy leader Kareem Musa offered some general observations of the Committee and its work in our interview with him this evening. For Musa, it is confirmation that the Government was an active participant […]
Has the Department of the Environment cleared a planned beach creation on the popular island of Caye Chapel without the benefit of an environmental impact assessment? The question came up on the adjournment in Monday’s meeting of the Senate in Belmopan. P.U.P. Senator Valerie Woods reported that the owners of the project want to do […]
As mentioned earlier in the newscast, the People’s United Party held the first National Party Council meeting of the New Year in Orange Walk. The main resolution which we told you about earlier concerned the Immigration revelations but there were three others. The party inveighed against Super Bond Three; the resignation of Gaspar Vega from […]
And now back to the senate. Osmany Salas, president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, formally took the oath that marked his ascension to the Senate as its thirteenth member, representing non-governmental organizations. It ends nine years of back-and-forth that started with a campaign promise by the ruling United Democratic Party that gripped the national […]
The congratulations came thick and fast from Salas’ new colleagues, with his friends from the tourism and N.G.O. communities looking on from the public gallery. But with the social partner Senators now holding a stronger hand in terms of the balance of power in the upper chamber, should Government be worried about threatened deadlock, and […]
In a final bit of news from Friday’s House of Representatives meeting, the return of Cayo South area representative Julius Espat was relegated to a footnote by the day’s debate, but he still found a way to make his mark. On Friday, he seemed to harbour a resigned frustration as he stood up on the […]
A Special Sitting of the House of Representatives was called for today, Friday. It is the second in a month and caught just about everyone by surprise. There were two bills left over from the committees and a motion for the re-appointment of Ombudsman Lionel Arzu to a further one-year term. The majority of the […]
The other piece of legislation is an amendment to the Crown Proceedings Act. It intends to make provisions on enforcements of foreign judgments against the Crown, and is also a direct answer to the efforts of B.S.D.L. and Caribbean Investment Holdings to enforce the arbitral awards. According to the Prime Minister, notwithstanding the refusal of […]
On the second reading of the new bill, a debate was held in which the Opposition raised its concerns of punitive action against Caribbean Investment Holdings and B.S.D.L. and the extremely short notice on which the bill was brought to the House, something for which the Prime Minister apologized in length several times. He noted […]
The final words of ex-Director of Immigration Ruth Meighan at her Wednesday appearance before the Senate Special Select Committee continue to reverberate in the national consciousness. She admitted that quite a few persons that the Department nationalized in the rush before general elections in 2012 were not in compliance with the requirements in place and […]
The Senate withdrew into a closed session at the request of lead Government Senator Godwin Hulse, and returned approximately fifteen minutes later insisting that the motion was out of order. But Senator Courtenay maintained that the result was what they had wanted: for the record to record the injustice done to the N.G.O. community and […]
