House Meeting Set for September 13: Questions Arise Over Opposition Seating Amid UDP Expulsions

A House of Representatives meeting has been called for September 13 in Belmopan at the George Price Center.  Perhaps the most curious matter at next week’s meeting will be the seating arrangements for the opposition. As we reported, UDP’s Party Leader, Moses Shyne Barrow, announced that Tracy Panton and Patrick Faber have been expelled from the UDP.  It is interesting to see if the two will now become back benchers and if precedence has been set with Marcel Cardona when he was expelled back in March 2011 and was made to sit in a corner in the back row.  According to the Chairman of the People’s United Party, Henry Usher, he himself is not certain how that will play out.

Henry Charles Usher, PUP, Chairman: “Well, they’re still opposition. They have not joined the government side so they can’t sit on the government side of the House, so they will sit, still sit on the opposition side. But that’s really a decision for the Speaker to make, no? The House rules the where persons sit, that’s the determination of the Speaker.”

Reporter: Okay, so they’re not obligated to sit at the back, considering… 

Henry Charles Usher, PUP, Chairman: “I don’t know. I really don’t know where they will be sitting down. All I know is that they will continue to be on the opposition side.”

Next week’s house meeting will be held at the George Price Center as the National Assembly is currently being refurbished.