7 News Belize

Opposition Calls For Removal of House Speaker
posted (August 29, 2016)
Tonight Belizeans are still recovering from the stunning images coming out of Friday's house meeting where police forcibly ejected PUP representative Julius Espat from his seat on the opposition bench, and a police officer fired a live round to scare off a small group of protestors who were charging towards the National Assembly building.

Those events made history - and now the PUP want to force another kind of history: they want to Speaker of the House Michael Peyrefitte to resign or be removed because of the events of Friday afternoon. And they want him to apologize to Julius Espat - both of which have never happened before. Today at a press conference at party headquarters, opposition leader John Briceno laid out his party's demands:

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition - PUP
"Today we are here to serve notice that we have had enough and we will take it no more. What happened in the House of Representatives last week Friday was not only a national embarrassment and a disgrace, but also a direct calculated attack on our Belizean democracy. Hon. Espat was exposing the hypocrisy of the Prime Minister an unprecedented corruption by the UDP administration. He was doing his job. He was serving the people and so we demand an apology from the Speaker, the immediate lifting of the suspension of Honorable Julius Espat and the restoration of all his rights and privileges as a member. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the events at last Friday's meeting of the House of Representatives was an obscene abuse of the power of power by the Speaker with the complicity of the UDP government. The Speaker showed his bias and unrestrained acts of intimidation against members of the Opposition. A disgraced the office of the Speaker, he brought the house into disrepute and he is a complete disgrace. It is clear that on Friday he had no right to call for the naming of the member for Cayo South who had already apologized. It was the Speaker who was out of order. This will not be allowed to continue. Enough! The Hon. Michael Peyrefitte has completely lost the confidence of the Opposition as Speaker. We therefore demand the immediate removal of Michael Peyrefitte as speaker."

The PUP also said that it is filing a constitutional motion to challenge the actions of the speaker.

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