Years Later, Belize Still Waits For Electoral Boundary Reform

Belize’s redistricting exercise has dragged on for years, and now the Elections and Boundaries Commission is facing fresh questions about why it still hasn’t been completed. Public interest litigant Jeremy Enriquez says the Commission is offering excuses for a delay that should have been addressed long ago. He argues that its inaction has fueled costly court battles and allowed unequal voter representation across electoral divisions to persist. The EBC points to legislative uncertainty and constitutional questions, but Enriquez says those issues should not have taken years to resolve. He’s already challenging the Commission in court over its refusal to release information about the process.

 

Jeremy Enriquez, Social Activist

“We would not have been in court and go through all this expense of court that the government is expending had they done their job. So I want to say upfront that I find the Elections and Boundaries Commission to be incompetent and they are shrouded by political interests. There’s a conflict of interest, and I would recommend that they resign for having failed the Belizean public and led us to an unconstitutional election to have an electoral division like Belmopan with more than eleven thousand voters right now and other areas in Belize City like the Freetown division, like Mesopotamia, like Fort George, less than three thousand. If they thought that there was confusion in the constitution, they could have said that from way back, and they should have made moves to clarify that. But they went ahead, and they were trying to present a proposal, which was another flawed and failed proposal that would not even meet minimum international standards. When they have thirty-five and twenty-five percent deviation in that proposal. That is why it was even rejected before it went to the House. The Elections and Boundaries Commission right through failed. “

 

Enriquez said his lawsuit against the EBC has already been filed in the High Court and is awaiting a hearing date, while also calling on civil society groups to speak out against what he described as failures in governance and transparency.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: