Activist Demands Breakdown of Legal Spending in Electoral Cases

Last night, we told you about a social activist pushing for transparency in how public funds are spent on legal battles. Jerry Enriquez has filed a Freedom of Information request with the Attorney General’s Ministry, asking for a detailed breakdown of payments made to attorneys and law firms since January, specifically in cases challenging Belize’s electoral boundaries. Enriquez says it’s about making that information public. He believes Belizeans deserve to know how their tax dollars are being used in these high-stakes constitutional cases.

 

Jerry Enriquez, Community Activist

“It is only right for the Belizean citizens to be aware of the monies being expended by the Government of Belize to defend their unconstitutional actions. They were elected unconstitutional. They went through elections violating the constitution that requires fair electoral redivision. They failed to do that and rushed through elections before November, the time that would be the election. We want to find out, how much money is being spent to defend their case against us. And that is the motivation. The second motivation is that even though they promised they would do the re-divisioning as soon as possible, we notice there is nothing in the budget and the national budget for re-divisioning. Therefore the question is raised, why are they spending money to hire these high priced attorneys when they could have used that money to get on with the work of redivision of electoral division. Thirdly, we who are citizens, concerned citizens, taking on this giant task, we have to be finding and raising money against a well resourced government, it is good for the citizens to know what we are also against, fighting against a well resourced government.”