Legal Opinion on Standing Orders Gives Way to Senate Meeting

The Sitting of the Senate for Thursday will proceed as scheduled, that is the final decision by the President of the Senate, following a legal opinion issued by the Attorney General earlier today.  As we reported last week, the opposition has raised serious concerns regarding the function of the Leader of Government Business in the upper house, since it is of the firm belief that that individual, based on their knowledge of the Standing Orders, must be minister of government.  Those concerns were raised in the wake of former Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay resigning from Cabinet.  In his legal opinion, AG Anthony Sylvestre referred to the Constitution of Belize where he says, “there is no provision in the Constitution that mandates that there must be at least one minister in the senate for it to be properly constituted, or that the Leader of Government Business in the Senate must be a minister.  Indeed, the only reference to a mandatory requirement in the Constitution relating to a minister is that he or she must be a member of the National Assembly”.  In reference to the Standing Orders, the Attorney General wrote, “to the contrary, there are multiple provisions in the Standing Orders which make clear that the offices of a minister and Leader of Government Business are distinct and separate”.