Social Partner Senators Take Issue with Tenth Amendment
Osmany Salas
Four social partner senators are of the view that the Government’s Belize Constitution (Tenth Amendment) Bill, 2021 is a departure from good and transparent governance. In a letter signed onto by the four senators and sent to Prime Minster John Briceño, they noted with concern several issues pertaining to the proposed amendment, including the apparent removal of impartiality from the four constitutionally enshrined bodies covered by the amendment, and the apparent lack of attention to the unique roles of each body. News Five spoke to Senator for N.G.O.s Osmany Salas after Wednesday’s Senate Meeting about these concerns.
Osmany Salas, Senator for N.G.O.s
“In relation specifically to the 10th Amendment, our biggest issue with the proposed amendment is that it lumps together these four constitutional bodies, constitutionally recognized bodies, as one when each of them have their own specific roles in our democratic governance. And, there are a couple others that were not mentioned. So, we asked in our letter, what is the justification? Why did you only lump those four, why not consider the rest? What is the justification for those four? What we did not say in our letter, but what is also important is, if when the national assembly is dissolved prior to elections, and these commissions in the amendment policies, there members step down as well, what happens in that interim between when the members must step down and the election day, and the week or two after election day? What happens? They each have important roles to play.”
