Elrington: I.C.J. Referendum is for Belizeans Living in the Country

Wilfred Elrington

According to Eamon Courtenay, certain conditions must and should have been fulfilled before Belizeans go to the polls on April tenth. He says that the legal opinion on the I.C.J. must be updated along with the Maritime Area Act. Courtenay also believes that the Representation of the People’s Act must be amended to allow Belizeans living in a foreign country to participate in the upcoming referendum. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wilfred Elrington, strongly disagrees. Elrington says the referendum is for Belizeans who are actually living in the country.

Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“The referendum in my view was intended to get the opinion of the people who live in Belize and who work in Belize and who will suffer the consequences of what happens not people who live abroad and who may never come back. It is something that is going to affect us.”

Reporter

“But constitutionally speaking they are Belizeans.”

Wilfred Elrington

“Of course, some of them are Americans as well. It has nothing to do if you are Belizean or American. It has to do with where you live, where you are prepared to die, where you are prepared to fight for that sort of thing. So those people who are in the United States, there is not a single person of Belizean heritage in the United States who cannot come down here, spend the two months, get registered, go back and when the thing comes, vote. Quite a few people have done that so it’s not that there is any law which prevents them from getting it done.”