Will There Be a Referendum in PM Barrow’s Final Term in Office?

Dean Barrow

To conclude our reporting on a lengthy interview with the Prime Minister, we asked him about an issue that is often a matter of national debate; that is, the referendum. Now, the dates for holding the poll have been delinked since last year when the compromis was amended by both parties. It means Belize and Guatemala do not have to hold it simultaneously. We asked the Prime Minister if he would push to hold the referendum in this term.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“I would hope that it will be sooner than later but the president Morales is obviously going to have an extremely difficult time when you look at the makeup of congress and the large issues in front of him. He can’t move without congress. Congress is fractious; congress is divided. So I’m not going to hold my breath in thinking that we can move to the referendum and then to the ICJ.  Would you like to see the referendum be held in your last term? I would but I m saying it is not something that obsesses me.  I am saying that the relations between the two countries while we are awaiting the holding of the referendum that those relations continue on a basis of good neighborliness, mutual restraint, mutual respect and a willingness to develop the people to people relations and to work the trade links which means measures in such a way that we can avoid flashpoints. For me that is job one.”

We do note however that in his inaugural speech, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales supported taking the territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice. In Belize, the sense is that the government is also in favor of going down the same path.