Cardona says consultations didn’t reflect will of people

Marcel Cardona

The outspoken U.D.P. area representative Marcel Cardona, also a member of FOB, maintains that the recent consultation process did not reflect the true sentiment of the people on the matter of the proposed ninth Constitution Amendment Bill.  He says that the majority of the non-partisan public sat out the sessions for fear of victimization.

Marcel Cardona, Member, Friends of Belize

“As a duly elected member of the House of Representatives representing the Orange Walk East Constituency I have been keeping my ear on the ground and I have listened to a lot of people.  Many people have refused, totally refused to come out to the public consultations due to several reasons; one of them being fear of political persecution, fear of political victimization, fear of them losing their jobs for example.  If they are employed through the government or through some agency of the government.  Fear of them not being able to, for example, get their titles to their pieces of land and fear of so many things where government has some sort of influence.  Accordingly, it is my considered opinion that the public consultations that have been taking place have really and truly just seen the participation of stalwarts, party supporters either for the blue or the red and the rest of the people, for example, the non-politically aligned people have in other words been pushed out of the scene altogether and accordingly it is imperative that a national referendum be held in order to listen to the views of those other people who I humbly believe are a significant portion of our population if it is not the majority of our nation’s population at this time.”

So, as we said, it is not known what the reaction will be to the thousands of signatures collected. The first and only referendum in Belize was held back in 2008 when the people, at election time, voted on the question of an elected senate. The results were overwhelming on the side of an elected Senate but that hasn’t been implemented. Oceana has also collected signatures for a referendum on oil exploration, but the result of that campaign has already been snubbed by Belmopan.