Attorneys Agree that Existing Law Needs to be Revised

Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley

But what about the existing law which falls within the Representation of the People’s Act and the need for that piece of legislation to be revised?  It’s a point that attorneys on either side of the matter agree to; however, until the law is amended, its language remains clear-cut.

Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley, Attorney-at-law

“The law is very clear and both counsels in this matter had said to the learned Chief Magistrate, in the course of submissions, that it is clear that there is need to improve upon the law.  But the law is the law until it is changed, and that law is really pretty straightforward, you can’t get more simpler than that.  Whichever politician or politicians agreed to Section 5, Subsection 1, that all you have to do is say I am residing in the division for two months prior to when you apply to be put on the voters list, that is all there is. They were attacking after July 2023 and the Chief Magistrate, in her three-page written decision just now, went into the details of the objectors, that she said the questions we had put to them, “When you pass di man house?”  Cause one ah dehn seh he go morning, noon, evening and night.  “So when you pass?”  He said, “Well, it was eena August, August”, after the man had already resided there. The Chief Magistrate of Belize focused her legal attention to what the law requires.  The law requires that when you go into apply to be put on the voters list, you must have resided a minimum of two months in that area and she went to each of the objectors, the three objectors and that none of them had in fact come close to unearthing that matter.”