Posted: Tuesday, January 10, 2017. 1:06 p.m. CST.
By BBN Staff: The NGO community, today, elected Osmani Salas of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, to represent them as the 13th Senator.
Twenty-three of the 29 NGO’s in good standing participated in the voting process, which was held at the Belize Audubon Society office in Belize City this morning. There were two rounds of voting: the first carrying six candidates, and the second carrying the top two.
After the voting, which took around 40 minutes, Salas beat out Edilberto Romero, of Bacongo, by nine votes.
Salas said that there are over 120 NGO’s that did not participate in the process, and his first order of business will be to work with those NGO’s, to ensure that he represents the entire community in the Senate.
He also thanked the Belize National Teacher’s Union, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Belize Business Bureau, for their efforts in making the 13 Senator a reality.
The NGO’s will meet on January 24, to discuss the terms of reference for the Senator, and the configuration of the Senator’s advisory committee. Media relations officer for the 13 senator Steering Committee, Froyla Tzalam, said that the committee will file the relevant documents to the office of the Governor General immediately, to ensure that they do not go over the January 17 deadline.
By the commencement order, signed by Prime Minister Dean Barrow in October 2016, the 13 Senator will officially come into effect on January 20.
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