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VIP Tries For A Hail Mary: Invokes Constitution to Nullify Election Result
posted (October 15, 2015)
"Shut down the upcoming General Elections, or else..." That's the announcement that the Vision Inspired by the People and their coalition of independent activists publicly announced today. And, to put teeth to that threat, they filed a claim this morning in the Supreme Court to trigger an election petition as soon as the election results are in. In that case, they will seek to nullify the results, which could mean that the time, energy and big money spent by the politicians to get elected might be completely wasted.

It's a bold legal move, which to our knowledge, has never been attempted before. But the VIP, say that they've been forced to hold the election ransom in this fashion because for years they've been trying to bring this issue to the attention of the Government, and the Elections and Boundaries Commission. They and the organization which calls itself, the Southern Belize Coalition for Equal Political Representation and Development, say that the way the 31 electoral divisions countrywide are currently set up, the voters are being disenfranchised.

Section 90 of the constitution makes it clear that the electoral divisions must be divided up in such a way that each is as nearly as equal in the number of voters. But, for this election Fort George has 3,084 voters while Belmopan has 9,253 voters. So, according to the VIP and others, for this law to be complied with Belmopan should have 3 area reps, instead of 1 since it has 3 times the number of voters. So, there is a great disparity between the divisions and these petitioners say that they've pointed it out to the Elections and Boundaries Commission, which has basically written back to them saying that it takes a very tedious and intensive process to reconfigure the electoral divisions. It certainly will not happen in time for the Elections and so, that brings us to today's announcement by the VIP and the Coalition. Here's how they explained it:

Felix Miranda - Petitioner
"I am warning Belize already. The day after elections, if this elections takes place, I am filing a petition to the court to make it null and void. Because it is being done under non-compliance of your constitution, of Belize's constitution."

Hubert Elrington, SC - Attorney For the Petitioners
"You have little pockets, little divisions in Belize District. Very small and then in different areas of the country you have these huge divisions. Which means that if we were following the constitution, Belize would only have half the amount of representatives it presently has. Only half. Constitutionally Belize City appears to be entitled to half the representatives it presently has and the other divisions need to be given more representatives. So that when the election comes in, the area representatives who go to the House of Representatives comes not predominantly from Belize City, but from the other districts. So it puts power where it has no right to be. It disfigures, it distorts the constitution entirely out of shape. And incidentally, this distortion benefits the Hon. Said Musa and the Hon. Dean Barrow."

Hubert Enriquez - Chairman, VIP
"We are prepared to go all the way to the CCJ, the final appellant court of Belize if necessary."

Daniel Ortiz
"You are basically saying that if this election goes through, there could be a very big possibility that it will have been rubbish."

Hubert Elrington, SC - Attorney For the Petitioners
"It's a waste of time. We wasting time, effort and money."

For context, we note that this disparity of political representation has been pointed out in the recent past, but it has pretty much gone untouched by the mass parties who control the political directorate. So, were they to be successful, they would make history…but it's a long way from here to there, but certainly worth a try for the party which is not contesting the election and has been struggling to gain public support.

So is it a power play? Are they trying to get recognition by the electorate with this move? That's what we asked, and here's how they responded.

Daniel Ortiz
"Are you seeking to reap the benefits of this? Because you all will be remembered as the individuals who shut down an election right after it was called."

Hubert Enriquez - Chairman, VIP
"I am not sure where you are coming from. I hope you understand how serious this matter is. This matter is very serious in terms of what's happening."

Daniel Ortiz
"You all are a political party. You are all politicians. You will definitely benefit from this if this goes through."

Hubert Enriquez - Chairman, VIP
"If that's the case, then that's the case. We don't take this thing likely sir. We have been involved with politics for 15 years, because we want to see our country develop and that's all our motivation is."

Felix Miranda - Petitioner
"It was I who did that. I initiated it. I had a coalition with them. So therefore it was not Mr. Enriquez that did this. I did it."

Daniel Ortiz
"I am asking the question simply for clarification if there is any other ulterior motives. That's all."

Felix Miranda - Petitioner
"No. Because of the non-compliance with the constitution of Belize."

Paul Morgan
"I believe your question is genuine, because for very long we have seen politicians play gimmicks with politics. Play gimmicks with our country. But the VIP is a very serious organization. It might be small, but we are very serious that this country must be run properly."

As of September 9, there are 196,587 persons registered to vote in the upcoming elections. For the electoral divisions to be equitable, each of the 31 constituencies needed to be configured so that they have a total of 6,342 voters. We'll keep following the story.

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