PCC Wants More Public Consultation After Recommendations are Submitted

The deadline for the People’s Constitution Commission (P.C.C.) to submit their final draft of recommendations is looming. However, Anthony Chanona, the Chair of the P.C.C., says they need more time to wrap up all the necessary work and are seeking an extension.  Earlier today, a draft of the P.C.C.’s recommendations started making the rounds, but Chanona is not happy about it. He claims this draft doesn’t accurately reflect the commission’s final product. Some commission members, like Caleb Orosco, have voiced their disappointment, with Orosco posting on social media that several key recommendations were left out.  Chanona assures that today’s discussions will address any oversights, emphasizing that the recommendations are based on data collected from the public. He also mentioned that the commission is pushing for more public consultations after the report is submitted to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. Stay tuned for more updates as this story develops!

 

Anthony Chanona, Chair, People’s Constitution Commission

“In the Trinidad and Tobago experience, they just went through this process. One of the expectations and we would hold the same expectation is that first of all just for clarification we do not present this document to the public. The law is very clear. We present an only to the prime minister of Belize. He gets a document.  But one of the expectations that we are proposing in the draft of the final report is to encourage the government of Belize  to set up a secondary tier, a secondary process  to take the document into the public space by a separate process and procedure  to allow the people of Belize to see the contents of the report it to debate it. Perhaps this can be led by the University of Belize, the Belize Chamber of Commerce, or whatever other civil society group,  so that when the people of Belize go to a referendum,  they can make an informed decision. And that’s why this process takes time. But that is not for us to do.  Our remit is talk to the people,  take a record of their views,  put it into a report and give it to the prime minister. That’s easier said than done. We’re now two years at it  And we think we need another two months to finish.”