Belize Shares Democratic Vision at Commonwealth Forum

Belize’s presiding officers have returned home after representing the country on the world stage at the Twenty‑Eighth Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth in New Delhi, India. The high‑level gathering brought together leaders from more than sixty parliaments to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing democracies today, from the role of Speakers in protecting democratic norms, to how artificial intelligence is reshaping parliamentary work, to the growing influence of social media on lawmakers. At the conference, Deputy Speaker Marconi Leal Jr. spoke about the need to strengthen governance across the Commonwealth and shared Belize’s own hopes for a more modern and resilient National Assembly. Today, he told News Five what the experience means for Belize’s parliamentary future.

 

Marconi Leal Jr., Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives

“Well, It was definitely an exciting opportunity to be in India for the twenty-eighth Conference for Speakers and Presiding Officers. It’s an opportunity where the Commonwealth, fifty-six countries in the world, get their speakers and presiding officers -president, what we would call President of the Senate, together to talk about how we move parliament forward. In Belize there’s so much that we’re already doing. We already have the live broadcasting of Parliament and the legislative process that we go through at the National Assembly. We’re also doing the youth parliamentarian but there’s so much more innovative strategies that were brought on the table. We had really great guest speakers talking for two days. There were strategies on how we can utilize AI; how we can utilize social media, and there’s the good and bad in social media. The main bad being the misinformation that is quickly getting out there. We can definitely expect the President of the Senate and the Speaker and myself and the Clerk sitting together to look at how we can better involve these – include these strategies in the strategy going forward in terms of getting Belizeans to better understand the role of parliament and the process. And the long and the short of it is how do we build public trust in the process as we move forward with the legislative step? How do we get them more involved in the petitions and the committees that are there? To better understand how they can be involved in these laws and legislation that they’re hearing about on a day-to-day basis.”