“Heavily Politicized” Redistricting Proposals Says Opposition Leader
Moses “Shyne” Barrow
With that said, Opposition Leader Barrow went on to reveal that the two opposition members on the Redistricting Task Force have voted against the newly proposed amendment to the reports. Barrow asserted that the amendments are unconstitutional and that the proposal now set to be tabled before the House of Representatives is heavily politicized. He went on to explain that while the report that was leaked to the public was headed in the right direction, the amended proposal maintains the status quo. According to Barrow, the opposition is prepared to challenge it in court.
Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“The fact of the matter is the proposal that was put forward and voted on by a three, two vote, three of the government commissioners voted for it. Our opposition commissioners voted against, it is unconstitutional. They went from bad to worse. I shared with the media what they had proposed at the meeting in July, I believe, or the end of June, sorry, June twenty-eight, or thereabouts. They were headed in the right direction, in which they were creating four new seats, and they were eliminating two seats in the city. What the opposition was pushing for, and I believe the relevant stakeholders will agree, based on the conversations that I have had with them, was for them to go further in complying with the constitution, which would have been as I put out in my eighteen minute presentation to the media because my voice was suppressed in the House of Representatives on the matter, it would be to amalgamate Caribbean Shores, Freetown and Fort George to create two constituencies out of those three, but obviously the government would not want to do that. They’ve gone from a proposal that was headed in the right direction to know they have not created more constituencies in Cayo and in Orange Walk. So remember I shared with the media that it was to be an Orange Walk South Central, a Cayo Northwest. They have taken that off of the table. They have left Belize Rural South at about over eight thousand and taken the voters out of Belize Rural South that are in Caye Caulker and merge them with Fort George, they’ve gone across the Caribbean Sea, taken a people that have their unique identity and culture, driven by fishing and tourism, a totally unique and distinguished set of people as are all the thirty-one constituencies and transplanted them into Fort George, why? To save, in my opinion, Henry Charles and Kareem Musa from having one of them lose their seats. They have created, they stuck with that proposal to create a new constituency in Belmopan, which is the same size as Belize Rural South. So that was split in half, Stand Creek West has been split in half to create a Stand Creek South. Belmopan is now Belmopan West and East.”
A late evening G.O.B. releases says that the Elections and Boundaries Commission has completed it work and has made proposals for redistricting after a review. According to the release, the report was discussed this morning in Cabinet. It goes on to say that Canine expressed serious concerns about the recommendations made by the Commission.
