A meeting of the House of Representatives has been scheduled to take place on Friday, April 12. The singular purpose of the meeting is for government to fulfill the requirements for a referendum to take place. Part of that requirement is that the matter be taken to the National Assembly. Strictly speaking, for a referendum to be undertaken the Government could have simply taken it to the Senate. That was what the government did for the Referendum, which was scheduled for April 10. But because the People’s United Party had problems with this and because an injunction had been granted until the matter could have been examined; the government has taken the decision to comply with the second option of taking it to both the National Assembly and the Senate.
Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow held a press conference on Monday, April 8 to appraise the nation of this decision. He stated that the referendum will be held within the next six to eigth weeks. In preparation for this however he announced that the government would first go to the National Assembly. In addressing the media, PM Barrow explained that the Government had earlier in the day gone to the Court of Appeals to have an injunction, which was granted to the PUP on the holding of the referendum on April 10, to be lifted. That was unsuccessful however as the Court of Appeal ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal until after a 21-day period.
Speaking on the larger issue of the PUP’s maneuverings, PM Barrow noted that he had kept the campaign on the ICJ above partisan politics; however, he noted that the Opposition was now employing delay tactics to stymie the Belizean people from going to the referendum. He noted however that, “this government is determined and will absolutely fight a way to have that referendum held within the next one to two months. We will not allow the Belizean people to be deprived of their fundamental right to decide on this issue.”
With that PM Barrow explained that the House meeting will be held on Friday and by Monday the Senate will meet in order to fulfill the requirements for the Referendum to take place.
