The P.U.P. has reached the threshold to trigger the recall mechanism in Cayo Northeast. In fact, the party has exceeded the threshold and continues to gather signatures. Meanwhile, Elvin Penner is still sitting in his government ride enjoying the perks of his position, with no indication if he will resign. While the recall process for […]
The P.U.P. will be in Belmopan on Friday, and we don’t mean just inside the House. Deputy Leader Julius Espat has confirmed that the party will be organizing a protest in front of the National Assembly to coincide with the sitting of the House of Representatives. It’s not clear if other parties will be joining […]
Former Deputy Mayor Eric Chang remains absent without leave in Taiwan since departing for his home country in early September. Chang, who has been accused of participating in the conveyance of a fraudulent Belizean passport to an imprisoned South Korean businessman, has virtually fallen off the radar. According to Mayor Darrell Bradley numerous attempts have […]
A group of U.D.P. supporters turned up to welcome PM Barrow home. They weren’t allowed past the barrier into the main airport area, but Minister of State Mark King was. He’s had his own problems with Barrow, and in fact was suspended for three months earlier this year. It’s no secret that King is not […]
Women in public office have been a rarity in Belize’s political landscape when compared to the number of men who have offered themselves for candidacy in municipal and general elections over the years. Sure, there have been a number of initiatives, including Women In Politics, a broad curriculum organized by the National Women’s Commission, to […]
Former Minister of State and the man on the immigration hot seat Elvin Penner is back in Belize. He returned from Guatemala on Sunday, after receiving medical attention for hypertension and headaches. But the passport scandal boiling over in Belize probably won’t help his high blood pressure any. And his headaches will not be going […]
While Elvin Penner has not made up his mind if he is resigning, the People’s United Party says it now has enough signatures to start the process of a recall in Cayo Northeast. According to deputy leader, Julius Espat, the P.U.P. has now made it to the one thousand seven hundred plus signatures it requires […]
According to Mayor Bradley, there are statutes within the City Council Act which prohibit councilors from prolonged, unexplained absences from office. In this case, Chang has not maintained sufficient contact with City Hall to keep the mayor abreast of his extended stay. The mood among fellow councilors during this morning’s meeting was one of uncertainty, […]
As we told you, Penner will be back in Belize on Sunday and he is not resigning as yet. Via phone today, he also told News Five that he will be meeting with his constituents in next week. The Prime Minister points out that the Constitution makes it clear that barring resignation or crossing the […]
By midday Thursday, Eric Chang will probably no longer be the Deputy Mayor of Belize City. That’s the word coming out of City Hall today. Chang had been given an ultimatum by the Council that he needed to let them know his position by last Friday. He did speak to the Mayor, but News Five […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has made it abundantly clear that his initial position to give former Minister of State Elvin Penner a second chance, has now changed following disclosure of further irregularities at the immigration department. While Barrow has asked for Penner’s resignation that is not forthcoming since Penner has indicated that he will remain […]
But the prospects, according to August, are less than likely that the People’s United Party will emerge victorious if a bye-election should be called since he claims that the opposition is struggling to garner the required thirty percent of signatures necessary to trigger Penner’s recall. The three-step process, August says, will see the P.U.P. grappling […]
After much public outrage and an overwhelming demand for a criminal investigation into the illegal issuance of nationality certificates and passports at the Immigration and Nationality Department, the Belize Police Department has been called in to investigate. The extent of that investigation is not known, but no less than the commissioner of police says they […]
At Tuesday’s press conference, the P.U.P. also disclosed that voters are reporting that inducements are being offered by the ruling party not to sign a recall petition. Likewise, there are threats of victimization should they support the recall of the area representative Elvin Penner. Opposition Leader, Francis Fonseca, pointed out that voters in the constituency […]
There are new developments from the ongoing immigration corruption saga which makes a bye-election in Cayo Northeast a strong possibility. But here’s the biggest, first…Elvin Penner has been asked to resign as area representative of Cayo Northeast, effective immediately. That bombshell was delivered by his political boss this morning at a press briefing in Belmopan. […]
If Penner does the unthinkable and refuses to resign that leaves a recall as the only process to get rid of him. For the past week, the P.U.P. has been trying to get the eighteen hundred signatures to trigger the recall. In that week, the U.D.P. has been actively campaigning to derail the recall process. […]
Within two hours of the Prime Minister’s disclosure that there were more irregularities in the issuance of passports and the involvement of the former minister of state, the Opposition held a scheduled press conference. There are three scenarios playing out right now: a recall in Cayo Northeast, Penner’s resignation and both would result in a […]
Former P.U.P. standard bearer Orlando Habet lost to Elvin Penner by a mere seventeen votes in the last general elections. Habet has maintained all along that the elections were stolen because of the mass nationalization and subsequent registration of Guatemalan nationals and other Central Americans by Penner to vote in the 2012 elections. In the […]
Aside from a report on the investigation in the passport scandal and the purported sale of visas, the Opposition is also looking at another investigation. Senator Lisa Shoman first presented the notion of a senate investigation into the passport scandal during a special sitting of the senate two weeks ago. She says that an independent […]
Back to the P.U.P. Press Conference. The Opposition, as well as other social partners, amid the ongoing scandal, has been calling for an inquiry into the issue of impropriety at the Immigration Department. But while the business community and other groups have asked for an open probe into the matter, the moral authority of the […]
Last Friday, the Prime Minister was asking to give Penner a second chance and over the weekend, the PM was in full blown campaign mode. He was in Cayo on tour meeting Cayo Northeast constituents making it clear that the situation is bigger than Penner, and it was all about the U.D.P. and the good […]
The involvement of Elvin Penner in the issuance of nationality certificates and passports has far reaching implications. Earlier today, Landy Espat, a member of the Elections and Boundaries Commission, wrote to its chairman, B.Q. Pitts. Espat, who has years of experience under his belt in the electoral process, says in his view there is great […]
At the break of the scandal, the Opposition asked Penner to resign or be recalled. Last weekend, the P.U.P. went into full gear and started the collection of signatures required to trigger a recall in the Cayo Northeast constituency. About twelve hundred signatures have been collected so far. The U.D.P. also went into motion asking […]
Since the last email Penner sent to the media in late September, he has remained mum and away from the watchful eyes of the public. The opposition has called for his resignation or recall, and amid all that there are reports that Penner may be talking to the People’s United Party even though crossing the […]
The Vision Inspired by the People political party says that Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse is a disappointment to them. Today that party came out swinging in the wake of the press conference – at Godwin Hulse and at the government. VIP public relations officer, Bobby Lopez, referred to the immigration measures announced Thursday as […]
