17°15′04″N88°46′23″W / 17.2512°N 88.7730°W /17.2512; -88.7730
Senate of Belize | |
|---|---|
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| Type | |
| Type | |
Term limits | 5 year term, appointed by theGovernor-General of Belize |
| History | |
| Founded | September 21, 1981 (1981-09-21) |
| Leadership | |
Vice-President | |
Leader of Government Business | |
Leader of the Opposition | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 13 members |
 | |
Political groups | PUP 6 UDP 3 Other 4 |
| Elections | |
| Appointment by theGovernor-General | |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| National Assembly Building Independence Hill Belmopan Belize | |
| Website | |
| National Assembly of Belize | |
| Constitution | |
| Constitution of Belize | |
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Monarchy |
Administrative divisions |
 Belize portal |
TheSenate is theupper chamber of theNational Assembly of Belize. It has 13 members appointed for a five-year term by theGovernor-General.[1]
Senators are appointed by the Governor-General in the following manners:
In practice, the party that wins the general election (by capturing the most seats in the lower house of representatives) also controls the Senate. In previous incarnations, eight senators were appointed, five by the prime minister, two by the leader of the opposition and one by the governor general and the Belize Advisory Council. One more senator was given to the opposition beginning in the 1990s.
Occasionally, a prime minister may find it necessary to appoint a senator to a post in the Cabinet. The first such instance was forC.L.B. Rogers underGeorge Price in 1979 after losing his seat in the House. Price also appointedRalph Fonseca, who did not run in the 1989 general election, to a minister of state post until he ran and won in a newly created constituency in 1993.
In 1997, the UDP appointed the Belizean ambassador to Mexico,Alfredo "Fred" Martinez, a senator to also serve in Cabinet as minister of trade and industry, thereby relinquishing his ambassadorial appointment, to which he would later return.
Former SenatorRichard "Dickie" Bradley twice lost elections to the House and was appointed a senator and given a Cabinet post each time.
Following the 2012 general elections, the UDP lost its supermajority and exercised its constitutional limit to appointing four senators to serve as ministers. One,Godwin Hulse, had been a senator dating back to 2006 and was appointed leader of government business in the House, while three others were newcomers to national administration (Charles Gibson is a former senior public officer and was CEO underJohn Saldivar in the Ministry of the Public Service; he was appointed as minister for that portfolio in 2012.)
The Senate traditionally meets in session in the week immediately following aHouse meeting. Senators will discuss the measures sent by the House for review and approval, then vote on whether they should be sent back or approved.
Beginning in late 2005, the Senate convened an investigation into allegations of mismanagement of public funds at theSocial Security Board. This committee was headed by SenatorGodwin Hulse and featured senatorsDickie Bradley,Moises Chan, andRene Gomez.Arthur Roches was also supposed to appear as the UDP representative, but declined under pressure from the Opposition. These senators questioned persons working at the Board in the last five years over the activities of the Board.
In June 2006, the Senate released a report in which it roundly condemned the actions of General ManagerNarda Garcia and ChairmanYasin Shoman in presiding over the questionable investment of millions of dollars in failed projects of former House member Glenn Godfrey. It called for their removal and reforms to be made to the laws governing Social Security. Shoman and Garcia denied any wrongdoing, but both had been removed from the Board, Garcia choosing to challenge this in court.
On October 28, 2006, Chief JusticeAbdulai Conteh denied Garcia judicial review, claiming the Senate had no case to answer. Garcia has settled out of court with the Social Security board over her contract, receiving an additional eighty thousandBelizean dollars.
Following an appeal of the decision, on November 16, 2006, Conteh denied Garcia leave to appeal the previous decision. Garcia could appeal toBelize's Court of Appeal.
The Senate elects both apresident and vice-president of the Senate upon first convening after ageneral election. The person elected president may be a senator (provided he does not concurrently hold a ministerial position) or a person external to the Senate. The vice-president must be a member of the Senate who does not hold a ministerial portfolio. (Constitution, Art. 66)[2]
(as of November 12, 2020)
Senators occasionally use their position as a springboard for election to the lower house which really wields much of the legislature's power. Most senators who do go on to contest elections usually have the backing of their party establishment.
In October 2006,[3] three new senators,Esther Ayuso Ramirez, Deborah Mencias-McMillan and Diego Bol were appointed on the advice of the leader of the opposition to replace outgoing Senators Marcel Cardona, Ambrose Tillett and Arthur Roches. This frees Roches and Cardona to run for House seats in 2008.
In June 2007, as a result of an Executive reshuffle,Eamon Courtenay was removed as a senator. He was replaced by Ambassador to the United States and OAS,Lisa Shoman (ironically, they were both respectively informed of their demotion and promotion by phone while participating in a meeting in Panama.[4]) Courtenay and Minister of Natural Resources John Briceno were fired on Monday June 4.[5]
September 2007 brought more upheaval to the Senate.Channel 5[6] reported thatAnthony Chanona resigned over disagreements with a recent bill argued before the Senate. His replacement,David Hoy, was named in November.[7]
The2008 Belizean constitutional referendum saw a majority of those voting support an elected senate but on a much lower turnout than in thesimultaneous general election; the newly elected UDP government decided not to implement the reform.
Following the 2012 elections,Collet Montejo andKaren Boden joined the long-standing Shoman, but were shunted out in 2014 in favour of Andrews and Sylvestre. Montejo, Andrews and Sylvestre were expected to run for seats in the next general election.