The National Assembly of Belize is divided into two Chambers, the House of Representatives (the lower chamber) and the Senate (the upper chamber). The role of the Senate is to debate and approve Bills coming from the House of Representatives. At specific parts of the Constitution, the Senate is required approve the ratification of treaties, the appointment of members of the Integrity Commission and the Contractor General. In some instances, the Senate may vote down Bills brought by the House, but this power is limited to those that are not “money-bills” which generally include general or supplementary appropriation Bills. Where the Senate votes down a Bill and the Bill returns to the House of Representatives, that Bill may either be revised and submitted to the Senate again or if the Senate votes down the Bill twice, the House may proceed to pass the Bill without Senate approval.

Originally, the senate was made up of 8 Senators, 5 on the advice of the Prime Minister, 2 on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition and 1 on the advice of the Belize Advisory Council. This was later expanded to 12 with seats given to the Council of Churches, the National Trade Union Congress and the Belize Chamber of Commerce & Industry. In October of 2016 via statutory instrument 67 of 2016, the efforts of years of advocacy culminated into the introduction of a 13th Senator to represent the NGO community.

The report coming out of 1999/2000 Political Reform process highlighted the introduction of an elected Senate as a recommendation. Most Senates around the world use either a wholly elected or a mix of elected and appointed members. Belize is 1 of 14 jurisdictions that use a wholly appointed Senate. With the People’s Constitution Commission currently underway, the question arises; should Belize continue appointing Senators or begin electing them?

We need to be specific when we say ‘elect’. Senators representing the social partners are voted in by the groups that they represent, this is not the case with the Senators representing political parties. An alternative could see candidates for the entire Senate up for vote by the general electorate. Advantages and disadvantages exist for either route, i.e staying with the status quo or moving towards and elected Senate.