“Government Resources Were Not Used”, Says PM Briceño on PUP Convention

Prime Minister John Briceño is defending the spending behind Sunday’s PUP mayoral convention, while at the same time cautioning against rushing campaign finance legislation simply to have a law on the books.

The convention, held to select the party’s Belize City mayoral candidate, has drawn growing questions over how much was spent to fund it. According to Briceño, both camps successfully raised enough financial support to fund their campaigns.

“Maybe you could look back and say, ‘You didn’t have to spend all that money.’ Probably they did,” Briceño said, adding, “the important point is that government resources were not used.”

The PM confirmed the Miller and Pollard camps secured enough financial backing from the private sector. “Both sides had enough financing to be able to run a very good, vigorous, fair campaign,” he said.

The role private sector money plays in political financing was flagged as a concern in a July report by BELPRI Executive Director Dr Dylan Vernon, titled “Money in Belizean Politics: Breaking the Regulation Gap.” 

Union Senator Glenfield Dennison has raised similar concerns and has called the Briceño administration to introduce legislation.

Briceño said the government will not legislate simply for the sake of having a law on the books. “We need to come up with, first of all, I’ve been saying it over and over, we have to come up with legislation that can work,” he said. “You don’t want to pass legislation to say you passed legislation.”

The PM confirmed he recently met with Vernon to review the BELPRI report. He says the bigger challenge is designing a system that can actually regulate political money in Belize.

“If we want to pass legislation just to have legislation say we have campaign finance legislation, then we can do so,” he added. “But it’s important that we have one that is applicable and can work within the Belizean context.”