N.T.U.C.B. Says No Elections until Demands are Met

Marvin Mora

The N.T.U.C.B. is making urgent six demands on the government to address before any elections are called.  The Congress wants campaign financing laws to be implemented and is also clamouring for the Senate Select Committee Immigration report as well as for the UNCAC Steering Committee to reconvene and move the UNCAC process forward.  President Marvin Mora says that the N.T.U.C.B. is ready to negotiate with the government.

Marvin Mora, President, N.T.U.C.B

“No elections until the implementation of all campaign financing law that mandates A.) all existing and aspiring politicians to disclose the source of their campaign finance exceeding one thousand Belize dollars; B.) establish limits on campaign contributions from individuals donors and organizations (one time deposits as well as annual cumulative) and C.) politicians and political parties disclose an official donors list during campaign of the election period. No elections until the re-convening of meetings of the UNCAC Steering Committee, adopting recommendations from the executive summary and commencing of the second phase of UNCAC. 3) No elections until that the report of the Special Senate Select Committee on the Auditor General’s Report of the Immigration Department is tabled and for subsequent police investigations to proceed where necessary. 4) No elections until the restructuring of the Integrity Commission and the Public Accounts Committee for reduced government influence in roles and responsibilities due to political appointees, and for more efficient oversight and government spending. 5) No elections until the implementation of sanctions or penalties for individuals found liable or who contravened, violated, or did not comply with the provisions of the  Finance and Audit (Reform) Act (No. 12 of 2005). We are not willing, we are not going to be able to continue to support an administration in place not addressing these very doable issues within the months to come. We have from here all the way to February for the government to address these properly. We believe they have more than enough time for them to sit down with us and dialogue and let us know when they can address these. If they have any issues with regards to any of these items that we placed forward the N.T.U.C.B. is not going to play hard head if the factors they present to us are solid factors. We also have our own people that we will have to listen to along the way and they are the ones who will be guiding this movement.”

Hubert Enriquez

Hubert Enriquez, Executive Member, N.T.U.C.B.

“There are those persons who were clamoring for elections to be called now. What we are saying is that unless these matters are addressed we don’t want to any about elections. We want to have these addressed for. Remember we have had this experience now. Promises were made that things were going to be corrected. In fact, they came and joined our parades. After all these years is that none of those promises that were made even put in manifesto, have been implemented. We want to avoid that situation by saying that we want these things to be addressed.”