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Hon. Valerie Woods- PUP Senator
"I am compelled to abstain on today's voting. And if it should be my swan song, Mr. President, I am comforted that it should be on an issue of existential importance to this country. So, if my head will be rolled, let it roll on this most critical national issue. And let the chips fall where they may."

Well, it took a few months - and one more meeting, but the chips have fallen. Senator Valerie Woods has been pulled from the Senate. The PUP plans to replace her with city councillor Dr. Candice Pitts - who is now offering herself as a candidate for the PUP in Mesopotamia.

And, former Senator Woods isn't the only one rolling. Senator Paul Thompson - the PUP hopeful for Albert is also being switched out. He's being replaced by Dr. Louis Zabaneh, the PUP hopeful for Dangriga.

And while the shuffling of the Senate deck has inspired political speculation and intrigues, best information to us is that - the Senators were not expected to serve more than three years. They had been sworn in - in March of 2016.

But, we are told the way it was handled has left much to be desired. Persons close to Senator Woods told us she didn't know she was being replaced until Candice Pitts posted this picture of her sitting in the parliamentary caucus yesterday evening. And, up to now, Woods has still not been informed that she's on the out.

And while in her Facebook post, Pitts proudly boasted of being the only woman at the table - and getting down to "serious business," she wasn't always that contented. The last time the PUP rejected her candidacy for Port Loyola, she sent out a statement lashing out at her party, indicting, quote "old-man-self entitlement politics (which has) prevailed and continues to prevail in our society.…concluding, quote, "what those members of the PUP have made vividly clear to me…is that: I am young; a woman from Port; of a particular race and therefore good enough to be in local government, but not Good enough to be in the National Assembly." End quote.

Well, seems things have changed. Pitts would have her first meeting in the National Assembly when the senate meets next week or, possibly, the week after.

And we say "would" advisedly - because - get this - Pitts cannot be in the Senate and serve on the City Council at the same time. That's right, she would have to first resign her seat in the council. It's a shocker to many, but it's right there in the law when we looked it up a short while ago.

Section "7(j) of the Belize City Council act says clearly: quote, "No person shall be eligible for election as a member of the Council, or having been elected, shall sit or vote on the Council, who:- is or becomes a member of the National Assembly or of any commission established by or under the Belize Constitution."

End quote. And, so that means that Councillor Pitts would not be able to sit on the council; she would have to resign from the council - to sit in the Senate. In that case, a bye-by-election would have to be held. Clearly, the PUP didn't know of this, but we imagine that by now the party has gotten the memo. We'll see what's their next move - since Councillor Pitts has not yet been formally declared or sworn in.