B.P.P. Calls Out LOO, Makes Appeal to Elections & Boundaries Commission

Wil Maheia

Wil Maheia also wore his Belize Progressive Party hat today and spoke to News Five about the redistricting process. It was the B.P.P. that took G.O.B. to court, triggering voter equity among electoral divisions. Maheia says that they’ve been disrespected by the Elections and Boundaries Commission because they’ve been excluded from the process and have not been privy to the draft document. Now, the final recommendations are to be forwarded to cabinet on July fourteenth and Maheia is appealing to the commission to do the right thing.

Wil Maheia, Belize Progressive Party

“We are the ones who took the government to court for this redistricting exercise and for me it is just amazing to hear the Leader of the Opposition now crying like a baby about this redistricting and how unfair it is. When his government was in, he did nothing to push the redistricting when he knew well that in Belize there was no voter equity and that’s what we have been pushing for. Now the redistricting is coming along and he is not happy with what’s going on because the same thing that’s happening to him today has been happening to all of us Belizeans for the past twenty-five years. What we are doing appealing to the commission, the people who sit on that and this redistricting commission, to do the right thing – not for political reasons, but for Belizeans. They have an obligation to all Belizeans to make voting equal so that there is voter equity across this country. You can’t have a division with four thousand in Belize City, as is proposed now, four or five thousand when Toledo continues to have seven and eight thousand in their division. There is no voter equity. And we hope that the commission, they owe it to the Belizean public – not to a political party, but to the Belizeans who live in this country – to make voting equal and fair. Right now what I’ve seen, it is not equal and fair. We have been disrespected by the commission. They keep talking about P.U.P. and U.D.P. being on the commission when we the Belize Progressive Party are the ones who took them to court to force this redistricting. They have not kept us informed; they have not invited us on the commission which is total disrespect.”