Shyne Says Let the People Vote on Monarchy

The mandate of the People’s Constitution Committee includes an in-depth look at the likelihood of a transition away from the monarchy.  The passing of the Queen of England in 2022 gave rise to public discourse on the topic of the realm and Belize’s place within the Commonwealth.  The coronation of King Charles III on May sixth has brought that conversation back to the fore.  Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow has chimed in on the conversation, reiterating that the decision to do away with the monarchy should rest with the people of Belize and not with parliament.

Shyne Barrow

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“My position in the discussions that we had was not trying to convince the chairman or the constitution commission that the monarch should go.  The discussion is how, and so that has to be done by a referendum.  I completely disagree with the prime minister of Belize to say that the house will make that decision.  That is not a decision for the House of Representatives.  As much as I would like for the head of state to be the prime minister or the president, whatever, the people will decide.  I believe the monarch should have gone when we got our independence, but it did not happen that way.  We are here now and it is a decision that should be made at a referendum. The matter is under discussion internally, so we have not formulated a position, a party position as far as against the monarch, per se.  What we have decided is [that] it should be done in a referendum.  There should be a referendum on the issue; however, I get a response of apathy.  There are people that yes, the monarch should go, but we are concerned with cost of living, we are concerned with crime, we’re concerned with a broken healthcare system, we’re concerned with unemployment.  We don’t care about no King of England.  That is what I have experienced internally and that is what I saw from the interviews that you’ve done.  The idea that removing the monarch, the British monarch as our head of state would have some type of negative impact is absolute untruth, absolute myth, absolute propaganda.”