Referendum rigor mortis; 8,000 signatures rejected

Tanya Williams

Moments ago, Coalition Coordinator, Tanya Williams contacted News Five to say that they have received devastating confirmation that Elections and Boundaries have rejected over eight thousand of the eighteen thousand signatures needed to trigger the referendum. The Coalition maintains that the signatures are legitimate and says it will not give up on its mission to have the referendum. Late this evening the Coalition sent a press release in which it implores the Government to support the Referendum by enabling the completion of the vetting of the petition signatures by February sixth.  The coalition also intends to write the Governor General and ask him to “act in the same good faith and reasonableness, and issue the Writ of Referendum on February seventh, naming March seventh, 2012 as the date of the offshore referendum.” News Five spoke to Williams about whether or not the Coalition feels the request will be honored.

Tanya Williams, Coalition Coordinator

“Well when we made that humble request, we did it acting in good faith to ensure that we save the people’s money and that we have the referendum the same time with another election so that you wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money. The only issue for us that we had to consider was that the villages would take a little bit of financial and human resources. But now that they are calling two election—both the general and the municipal—that point in mote. We both have municipal which would be your town and city and the general which will be everybody. So there is no financial or human resources cost that government would have to bear. So there is no reason for them not to hold the referendum on the same day.”

Jose Sanchez

“He also mentioned that it took a while for the signatures to be handed over to be verified and that process, he says, is going to take a long while—not right now.”

Tanya Williams

“I don’t think that is the case. As we understand it, that process is almost finished. And the other reason si that the Coalition is asking the elections and boundaries complete that process by Monday which will February the sixth.”

Jose Sanchez

“But all in all, at least political insiders are saying that they wouldn’t have made it happen anyway.”

Tanya Williams

“And that would be against the people’s will. The referendum is a people’s referendum. We had over eighteen thousand signatures on that referendum and the people of Belize want the opportunity to vote in the offshore referendum. So we are asking; give the people the opportunity to vote.”

Jose Sanchez

“And at the same time, what’s the Coalition’s or APAMO’s response regarding Treaty and the alleged find. We find or see a lot of fly by night oil companies coming and making allegations.”

Tanya Williams

“Well for us it prove4s us right with what we have been saying: that some of these companies don’t know anything about what they are doing and especially when it comes to offshore; it’s very dangerous. So the issue that we have right now is that Treaty proves us right. We have to ensure that we put systems in place to ensure that we are protecting our economy, our environment and our people.”

Jose Sanchez

“All in all, if the referendum does not happen on March seventh, do you foresee it happening any at all?”

Tanya Williams

“We will not stop, we will not give up. We have the people’s right to push for this referendum. People are looking for this referendum. We will not give up.”

From what we understand, the Coalition is considering other options.