And with that out of the way, the last two speakers were leader of government business Godwin Hulse and Opposition Senator Lisa Shoman. It was an unenviable position for Senator Hulse. He once fought for motions like the one being debated, and he is considered one of the champions of the SSB Senate Inquiry. But […]
Now back to the Wednesday’s marathon session of the senate. At close to six in the evening the parting shots had all been fired and it was time for the senators to vote on the motion for the appointment of the Special Select Committee. Even for House meetings the media is generally packed up and […]
On that undignified note the session ended. Shoman’s point of order was that President of the Senate Mark Pech did not have the constitutional right to cast a vote. In that event the vote would be deadlocked at six six. But as far as the government is concerned the motion was defeated seven to six […]
The business of the Senate motion has been front and center, much like the immigration scandal which spawned it. There will be no appointment of a Senate Select Committee because not one government senator of the six supported the motion. But where the scandal is concerned, there are allegedly three investigations currently underway – one […]
A highly anticipated senate meeting in Belmopan started at two this afternoon and concluded before six this evening. The main agenda item was the tabling of a motion by opposition senator Lisa Shoman for the setting up a senate select committee to investigate the immigration scandal which involves the illegal issuance of a passport to […]
It’s been two weeks since former deputy mayor of Belize City, Eric Chang, was stripped of his title and portfolios with the City Council. It comes on the heels of the passport scandal that broke on September nineteenth in which South Korean national Kim Wonhong received nationality and a passport while incarcerated in Taiwan. Chang’s […]
Former Minister of State Elvin Penner will not resign as Area Representative of Cayo Northeast. While there has been no official verification of this from either Prime Minister Dean Barrow or Penner himself, he has communicated his decision to the U.D.P. Cayo Northeast Executive Committee. We’ll have their response for you, but first an update […]
That money and benefits Penner is earning can give him a whole lot of comfort, but it can’t buy any love for the disgraced former Minister of State. The first Mennonite to serve as representative of such high office is shunned for his role in the passport scandal. And now he has become a political […]
Now that’s a situation which is practically unheard of…where the executive committee of a party refuses to work with the Area Representative of that constituency. Magaña says that the decision of the committee came on instructions from a member of the U.D.P. Executive after Penner met with the Prime Minister last week and at this […]
And with all that said…why doesn’t Penner just resign and get it over with? Chairman Fermin Magaña says he believes that Penner is trying to vindicate himself by serving his people as best he can in the time he has left. Fermin Magaña, Chairman, Cayo Northeast Committee “He has his personal reasons why he […]
Later in the broadcast, Francis Fonseca, the Leader of the People’s United Party addresses the nation on the immigration scandal. Fonseca says that there are more questions than answers in the scandal that is now forty-five days old and not going away. In his statement, Fonseca says that after calling for the resignation of Elvin […]
It was perhaps the most anticipated and hard fought political convention in recent P.U.P. history, as four persons vied for the right to represent the opposition party in the Belmopan constituency. In the ring was veteran politician Amin Hegar, who narrowly lost to powerful U.D.P. incumbent John Saldivar in 2012. Facing Hegar were three political […]
When news broke that a South Korean national imprisoned in Taiwan, had received Belizean citizenship and passport, the Prime Minister put Elvin Penner out of cabinet and announced that he was asking the former minister of state to also resign from the party and as area representative. That has not happened and Penner says he […]
Usually all eyes and ears are tuned to the fireworks, insults, taunts and verbal sparring inside the House of Representatives. But today, attention was split as the opposition announced late in the week that they would be protesting on the steps of the National Assembly. While the most burning issue on the public plate has […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow will be leaving over the weekend for medical treatment in the United States, but this morning, he faced a firestorm in respect of the recent passport and visa scandals that have rocked the Ministry of Immigration and Nationality and have shaken his Administration to the core. A number of bills came […]
The second amendment is the Belizean Nationality Amendment Bill which seeks to make more efficient the process by which Belizean nationality can be obtained by registration. This revision also allows for increased penalties for breach of the provisions and the establishment of a nationality scrutinizing committee in which the Prime Minister indicated that social partners […]
Lastly, the Passport Amendment Bill also sees the introduction of stringent penalties for persons found guilty of unlawfully aiding the acquisition of a Belizean passport. This proposal is in light of recent measures taken by the Minister of Immigration, Godwin Hulse, to address the loopholes in the existing immigration system. And while the price for […]
With the proposed amendment bills out of the way, the sparring got underway. There was a fiery exchange between P.M. Barrow and Opposition Leader, Francis Fonseca, regarding the investigations into the passport and visa scandals. The prime minister’s took a walk down memory lane on what transpired during past P.U.P. administrations on the very issue […]
We left you with the sparring between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Well that continued with the excoriation of the former P.U.P. administration. Barrow addressed the 2002 immigration scandal involving erstwhile Minister Maxwell Samuels. The past prime minister, he says, did nothing to discipline Samuels when it was discovered that he […]
Still on politics… The People’s United Party will be holding its convention for the Belmopan constituency this Sunday. If the past few weeks are any indication, Sunday’s election promises to be hard fought, spirited, and maybe even nasty. Four candidates have thrown their hats in the ring – political newcomers Jason Patrick Andrews and Oscar […]
All eyes have been on Edmond Castro recently because of the compelling nature of the corruption allegations against him. But the man who started it all is former Minister of State Elvin Penner. He wasn’t at the House meeting today. It’s a case of out of sight, but not out of mind…and apparently not out […]
While Landy Habet is paving the way to recall Elvin Penner, P.U.P. Belize Rural North political officer Arthur Saldivar is not far behind. His target is Edmund ‘Clear the Land’ Castro, who is accused of clearing the way for visas for Chinese nationals. The allegations against Castro are serious, and there are indications that much […]
In respect of the nationality scrutinizing committee….that issue was ventilated fully following the House Sitting when the Prime Minister faced the press for the first time since his return from the United States. When the Penner passport scandal broke, the committee was proposed to include social partners. Both the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and […]
In the wake of the passport and subsequent visa scandals, there has been a call for a senate investigation. That request was made by P.U.P. senator Lisa Shoman during the last sitting of the senate on October second. According to P.M. Barrow, the auditor general has been tasked to conduct an audit of the Immigration […]
As we reported on Wednesday, the People’s United Party is organizing a massive demonstration outside of the National Assembly during this Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives in Belmopan. The cause for protest, says Deputy Chairman Julius Espat, is the rife corruption within the Barrow administration. The P.U.P. is in the process of mobilizing […]
