Government Commits to Completing Redistricting in One Year  

The Government of Belize has reaffirmed its commitment to carrying out the redistricting of the country’s electoral divisions. In the latest cabinet meeting, it was decided that the 2023 proposal from the Elections and Boundaries Commission was unworkable and didn’t meet constitutional standards. Although the commission must now come up with a completely new plan, the government has promised to complete the redistricting by the end of 2025. News Five’s Britney Gordon has more details on this situation.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Another general election has come and gone without redistricting Belize’s electoral divisions. In 2023, the Elections and Boundaries Commission put forward a redistricting plan, but it faced immediate backlash from politicians and redistricting advocates. Earlier this week, the Cabinet reviewed the proposal again and decided it was unworkable and didn’t meet constitutional standards. Paul Morgan from the Belize Peace Movement believes the proposal should have been rejected well before the general elections.

 

Paul Morgan, Belize P.E.A.C.E. Movement

“I wouldn’t accept those proposals either. They’re total nonsense, right? When you hear, when you see a constituency that include Caye Caulker and Belize City. And when you see Belmopan  stretching all the way out to the Guatemala and border, they cannot be serious. That was intended to, those proposals were intended to be rejected, right? Those weren’t serious proposals at all. And honourable men rarely should be challenged by the media. Take a look at the proposals and tell me if they make sense. They’re betting that we, the population of Belize, will not be reading those things and will not be analyzing them thinking that they’re total magic, but they’re total nonsense.”

 

The Cabinet has asked the minister in charge of elections and the Attorney General to work with the Elections and Boundaries Commission on any needed constitutional changes to finish the redistricting. They’ve also promised to complete the process within a year. Before his re-election, we asked Prime Minister John Briceño if the redistricting could have been done sooner.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño (File: January 13^th, 2025 )

“I believe that the Elections and Boundaries Commission could have worked faster or more diligently and probably have more consultations with the public and to see how best it can work.  And so, at the end of the day, we are the government and I, as the head, have to take the responsibility.  So, I will take responsibility for that and I can assure that we want, as soon as we get in, to make sure that we start working on it.  I’m hoping that one or two years at the most, we should be able to already have that settled.”

 

Jeremy Enriquez, a strong supporter of redistricting, believes the proposal was flawed from the start. He argues that it didn’t tackle the problem of ensuring fair and balanced electoral divisions across the country.

 

Jeremy Enriquez, Concerned Belizean

 “There was another flaw in the proposal is that it did not meet the required international standard of ten to fifteen percent of deviation from the average number of voters across electoral divisions. the proposed twenty-five to thirty-five, which is totally unacceptable. So. first, they did not address the issue across the country. Then they picked areas of Belize City. The methodology did not look at the number of persons eligible to vote. All of those things made it wrong.”

 

Enriquez also took aim at the Election and Boundaries Commission, saying it was too politicized to come up with an unbiased proposal. He suggests that other organizations should be involved in drafting the new plan.

 

Jeremy Enriquez

 “I would recommend that an analysis of our electoral revising could be done through the policy section of the University of Belize. They have enough experts who could really objectively do that and then present the proposal to the Elections and Boundaries Commission, who would then present that to the government of their redivision. Secondly, there’s also the Statistical Institute of Belize, which has a lot of data. They have mapping equipment and all of that who could professionally do or undertake a study for a fair divisioning of our electoral divisions.”

Recently, the government has faced pressure from concerned citizens demanding a faster redistricting process. Last month, the Caribbean Court of Justice dismissed Jeremy Enriquez’s appeal against the Government of Belize. Enriquez had tried to delay the election due to the government’s failure to finish redistricting, but he was told that such a claim must be made outside the election period. Britney Gordon for News Five.