A new Mayor for Belize City might be in place by the end of the holiday weekend. Reports reaching News Five late this evening indicate that an official legal opinion on whether or not to allow absent Councilor Eric Kirkwood to vote by proxy was sought by the council and that a verdict has been […]
For a month or so before the elections it was a hot item on the Internet. That is a claim by a U.S. company that it had signed a deal with the Esquivel administration to provide government guaranteed mortgage financing to build thousands of Belizean homes. Authorities at the time denied such reports and issued […]
In related news, anyone who has ever spent the night in the Queen Street lockup or its big brother up the road in Hattieville, knows that conditions there are not terribly different from the dungeons of the Middle Ages. And if there is one person who has consistently spoken out against the state of the […]
In political news, today’s issue of the “People’s Pulse” can be considered a collector’s item. No, not because it won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism… rather because after this week the official newspaper of the United Democratic Party, like its predecessor the “Beacon,” will be no more. In a press release issued today the U.D.P. […]
Government continues to put its house in order and today announced a number of key appointments involving the foreign service, finance and education. With so few Belizean embassies abroad there are not a whole lot of spoils to go around… but it appears that at least three of Belize’s five major diplomatic posts will be […]
In other news from Belmopan the Ministry of National Security has begun a review of disciplinary actions taken against a number of police officers last year. According to a press release, the review, which comes as the result of complaints from officers who believe they have been dealt with unfairly, will be conducted by former […]
The weeklong deadlock at City hall over a successor to Mayor Jose Coye may soon be over. Acting Mayor Marshall Nuñez says the stalemate will be resolved shortly and without ministerial intervention. Nuñez told News Five that while the business of governing the City continues uninterrupted, he would prefer to have the job of Mayor […]
It was uncomfortably hot, so much so that one visiting diplomat even fainted… but not even the intense heat could obscure the feeling of those present that the transfer of power in the nation’s capital may actually bring about some real change in the way our government operates. Patrick Jones reports. The ceremonial open-air opening […]
In other news involving the nation’s largest municipality we were told today by Minister of Industry and Commerce Jose Coye that he has not yet resigned as Mayor of Belize City. Under the law, he explained, he can serve in both positions, and while he has prepared his resignation he has not yet tendered it. […]
Less than two weeks into its new term of office the government of Prime Minister Said Musa is slowly getting its house in order. Making good on its pre-election promise to brief the press following each session of Cabinet, that body’s secretary this morning met with journalists in Belmopan to discuss a number of new […]
While the government was busy announcing its new appointments, the Opposition had some announcements of it’s own. Appearing at a Belize City press conference this morning U.D.P. Leader Dean Barrow told journalists that the three opposition House members and two senators would not be taking part in Saturday’s outdoor ceremonial opening of the National Assembly […]
In other political news, there’s deadlock at City Hall and the result is a Council without a clear leader. Former Mayor Jose Coye had to give up the post when he was elected to the House of Representatives and subsequently named as a minister of government. At a meeting convened last night to elect a […]
The Leader of the Opposition named his appointees last Thursday, the Governor General announced his nominee on Friday… and today it was the Prime Minister’s turn to reveal his choices for the Senate. Dickie Bradley, who took a Cabinet post, was by necessity named earlier, and joining him on the P.U.P. side of the Senate […]
The new session of parliament will convene in Belmopan next week, but if you thought it would be business as usual… think again. A release from the office of the Clerk of the National Assembly Jesus Ken, says that both the House and Senate will meet at nine o’clock on Saturday morning, September twelfth. But […]
While we are not sure how the Opposition will take to the new legislative arrangements, U.D.P. Leader Dean Barrow has made it clear that he will be relying on the media to keep the nation informed regarding his party’s activities. He made his remarks on Thursday night’s “One On One” with Stuart Leslie. Dean Barrow, […]
On Thursday it was a journalist and a businessman, who were named to the Senate by the United Democratic Party. Today comes word that Wesley College Principal Brenda Armstrong is the Governor General’s choice for appointment to the Senate. She was slated to the post, after consultation with the Belize Advisory Council. Armstong has played […]
It’s like trying to take the sugar out of the cake, but a recently resurrected women’s organization is crusading to catapult the fairer sex into a more prominent role in the nation’s leadership. Former political activist for the People’s United Party Dorla Bowman is inviting women, irrespective of their party affiliation to join her in […]
Leader of the Opposition, Dean Barrow, has been saying for days that for the two U.D.P. Senators, he would choose people who were young, dynamic and able to capture the attention of the Belizean public. Ultimately that public will decide whether Barrow made the right choice, but for today at least, the two appointees seemed […]
Public officers, those government employees who carry on the nation’s official business regardless of which party is in power, have been informed regarding the new allocation of departments to the various ministries created by the new government. While most of the assignments follow the traditions set over several decades of practice, a few departments were […]
Yesterday it was the sixteen members of the Cabinet who crammed into the Governor General’s Belmopan headquarters to take their oaths of office. Today there was a lot more room to move at Belize House as just one man: Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow, took his oath of allegiance. No date has yet been […]
Sixteen ministers of government were sworn in this morning by the Governor General in a formal ceremony in Belmopan. Only four of them had held full ministries in the previous P.U.P. administration while two had served as ministers of state. That left ten rookies to form the majority on a team that is young by […]
In related news, two other appointments were announced today. For the first time in history, Belize will have a woman Speaker of the House, as Dangriga’s Sylvia Flores has been selected to preside over that body. As for the Senate, another woman from the south has been put in charge. She is Elizabeth Zabaneh, better […]
While team sixteen were being sworn in at the Governor General’s office, not far away another group of politically motivated visitors were just… swearing. These protestors, however, were not rabid U.D.P.s; they were blue to the bone… and in no mood for compromise. The mid-morning heat and humidity were not the only things on the […]
The new government of Prime Minister Said Musa has moved swiftly to name a Cabinet. After meeting in Belmopan this morning with his twenty-five fellow P.U.P. representatives, the Prime Minister announced the names of fifteen men and one woman who will chart the course of the new administration. News Five’s Stewart Krohn has the details. […]
While the P.U.P. representatives were forming a Cabinet in Belmopan, what was left of the Opposition gathered at the Biltmore Plaza in Belize City to make some news of their own. After twenty-five years as a founding member, chairman and finally leader of the United Democratic Party, former Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel called it quits. […]
