Belize City: Sunday 14thApril 2019

The extra-ordinary sitting of the House of Representative was called on Friday to introduce a new Referendum bill even though the prior writ of Referendum is still pending before the Supreme Court. 

This New Bill on Friday was pushed through all its required three stages in this one-session. It is Barrow’s kneejerk response to an interim injunction imposed by Chief Justice, Kenneth Benjamin in the Supreme Court last Wednesday which postponed the April 10thReferendum.  

On Wednesday, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, accepted the legal challenge to the writ of Referendum filed by the opposition and issued an injunction on the referendum until the substantive issues could be solved and ordered the government of Belize to respect the temporary suspension of the Referendum until the substantive questions to the referendum are resolved.

The call for an injunction was brought before the Supreme Court on April 1stby the People’s United Party who questioned the constitutionality of the referendum and successfully argued that the Referendum as it stands violates the Constitution of Belize inasmuch as it empowers the International Court of Justice with the authority to redefine the country's borders, which is already defined in the Belize constitution since 1981.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow believes that this new Referendum bill passed on Friday willcircumvent the original writ of referendum which is still before the Supreme Court of Belize. The key issue is the “Special Agreement” signed on December of 2008 which conceived the writ of referendum which is before the court. 

This new referendum law similarly calls for the holding of a referendum to determine whether any legal claim by Guatemala on land, insular territories and maritime areas should be taken to the I.C.J. for final settlement and allows the court to determine the boundaries of Belize.  

He is blind fully using the passage of this new piece of legislation to proceed with the ICJ Referendum as soon as possible.  

The extra-ordinary sitting of the House of Representative was called on Friday to introduce a new Referendum bill even though the prior writ of Referendum is still pending before the Supreme Court. 

This New Bill on Friday was pushed through all its required three stages in this one-session. It is Barrow’s kneejerk response to an interim injunction imposed by Chief Justice, Kenneth Benjamin in the Supreme Court last Wednesday which postponed the April 10thReferendum.  

On Wednesday, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, accepted the legal challenge to the writ of Referendum filed by the opposition and issued an injunction on the referendum until the substantive issues could be solved and ordered the government of Belize to respect the temporary suspension of the Referendum until the substantive questions to the referendum are resolved.

The call for an injunction was brought before the Supreme Court on April 1st by the People’s United Party who questioned the constitutionality of the referendum and successfully argued that the Referendum as it stands violates the Constitution of Belize inasmuch as it empowers the International Court of Justice with the authority to redefine the country's borders, which is already defined in the Belize constitution since 1981.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow believes that this new Referendum bill passed on Friday willcircumvent the original writ of referendum which is still before the Supreme Court of Belize. The key issue is the “Special Agreement” signed on December of 2008 which conceived the writ of referendum which is before the court. 

This new referendum law similarly calls for the holding of a referendum to determine whether any legal claim by Guatemala on land, insular territories and maritime areas should be taken to the I.C.J. for final settlement and allows the court to determine the boundaries of Belize.  

He is blind fully using the passage of this new piece of legislation to proceed with the ICJ Referendum as soon as possible.