Speaker Denies Opposition’s Call to Remove Panton and Faber from House of Representatives

Speaker of the House, Valerie Woods, has denied the request from the Leader of the Opposition to declare that Tracy Panton and Patrick Faber are no longer members of the House of Representatives.  The opposition leader, Moses Shyne Barrow, wrote to Woods on September 5 using the basis of the constructive resignation by the two in the UDP, as well as the formation of their new group, Alliance for Democracy.  The argument by Barrow could very well be deemed logical, but according to Belize’s Constitution, both Panton and Faber would have to personally declare their resignations in order to have it accepted by the House of Representatives.  It is the one element that is not anticipated to happen anytime soon as the two have openly stated that they remain members of the United Democratic Party.  Essentially, Panton and Faber have teamed up with Beverly Williams and John Saldivar to oust Barrow as the UDP Leader and have formed an alliance focused on making Panton the new party leader.  The alliance has gone as far as calling a convention for October 20 which will see an attempt to boot Barrow and other members of the UDP Executive.  Barrow, on the other hand, has been using the party’s constitution to rid the UDP of these four players, including the call for applications for new standard bearers.