Orange Walk East Area Representative Marcel Cardona was basically banished from the ruling UDP in March - when the party decided that he had "constructively resigned" from the party. The UDP said that they no longer wanted him sitting with them on the government side of the chamber.
So today, house observers were keen to see where they would put the rebel representative, after all the house floor is not a large area - and most of it is already occupied.
And so, just as we had reported he would be, Cardona was relegated to the far end of the opposition back bench. Cardona's only distinction from the PUP is that he had an additional decal posted in front of his spot. It reads: "non-affiliated." We note that this is a designation that has never been used in the history of our Parliament and the physical space is an area that has never been used because there's never been an opposition bog enough to extend that far down the back bench. And while history was made, Cardona was not there to legitimize it; he absented himself from today's meeting. That was a real let down because Cardona - who has not himself resigned form the UDP - might have rejected the odd seating arrangement.
But for the time being that's speculation, because we don't know how he will react if and when he re-appears in the house. So today all he had was the Prime Minister's reaction, and he told us it was the Speaker's decision:..
Jules Vasquez
"It says under Mr. Cardona's tag that he is none affiliated which I suppose is better that then being unaffiliated, but he is across the floor but he has not crossed the floor. How do we interpret it semantically?"
PM Dean Barrow
"You have to talk to the Speaker about that, it was the speaker. We made our representations to the speaker in terms of pointing out that Mr. Cardona has issued press releases and said various things indicating that he no longer supported the government, And we left it at that, so as to where he was seated entire a decision of the Speaker and he would have to tell you how it is that that particular placement was arrive at."
