Two weeks ago, Opposition Leader Dean Barrow condemned the Prime Minister's sudden advocacy of an elected Senate. Barrow said that he needed to be convinced that an elected Senate was a good idea, because electing the Senate would allow it to be controlled completely by political parties and thus injure its independence and undermine its broad representation.
Well, in his weekly column in the Belize Times, PUP Minister Godfrey Smith seems to be singing the Opposition leader's tune and not his party leader's.
Smith argues that elected representatives have the power to make laws and if senators aren't going to make laws, then what's the point of having them elected? And if they do get elected to make laws, then Smith argues it would slow the work of government.
And again echoing Barrow, Smith goes on to make the case for the Senate in its current supervisory, non legislative role - espousing, at best, a partially elected Senate.
