Patrick Menzies to Challenge Section 58 of the Constitution

Patrick Menzies

But even as Menzies announced his candidacy, he is expecting that come nomination day, on October twenty-first; he will be rejected because according to the section fifty-eight of the constitution, a Belizean with dual citizenship cannot hold political office. But Menzies says he plans to challenge the law in the Supreme Court.

Patrick Menzies, Belize Can Conservative Party Candidate, Belmopan

“I am disqualified because section 58-1(A) no person shall be qualified to be elected as member of the House who is by virtue of his own act under any acknowledgement of allegiance obedience or adherence to a foreign power of state. By my own decision I became an American so that means I don’t quality. But stick with me now, Mister John Quan from Taiwan comes here and buys his citizenship. He buys it , costs him ten grand—that’s chicken [bleep]; that’s five thousand U.S.—and then he talks to the P.U.P., ABC, IFG, whatever party and says guess what guys, I wanna be the head. What I gotta pay? Give me three million and we divide amongst ourselves. He pays, he goes to Fort George, pays the people a thousand dollars each—he has it—he can be the next prime minister. Think about this now, how ignorant is this? The man wasn’t born here; he bought his citizenship and he is qualified to be in the House and to be the prime minister. Aren’t we a nation that was colonized by England? If I am a Belizean-Brit, guess what? I can be the prime minister of Britain with dual nationality. I am a Belizean American, I can be the U.S. Senate if I spent nine years as a citizen and in the congress if I spend seven years. But my own country has rejected me by section 58-1(A). Now who is the nincompoop that actually wrote this mess? Somebody didn’t check their brain before they walked in the room.”