Esquivel-Musa debate is confirmed
Belizeans will soon witness the first prime ministerial debate in our nation’s history. That’s the word from SPEAR and the Belize Chamber of Commerce, who have been working for the last nine months to make the event a reality. At a meeting held this morning with representatives of the media the organizations announced that the two major political parties have agreed to a single debate between party leaders Manuel Esquivel and Said Musa. The date of the two-hour debate, to be broadcast nationwide on radio and television, is set for the second Wednesday following the announcement of elections by the Prime Minister. The likely time is seven thirty at night. According to Chamber General Manager Kevin Herrera and SPEAR executive director Dylan Vernon the four political representatives: Hubert Elrington, Ruben Campos, Ralph Fonseca and Jorge Espat, were not always easy to pin down.
Dylan Vernon, Executive Director, SPEAR
“It’s difficult to get these four people in a room at the same time especially when they are so busy preparing for elections. But I think the more the reason that I think it is happening is that election dates are not known in Belize and parties don’t get overly excited about things like debates until later on and closer on to when debates are called. I think it was a matter of feeling that yeah, the date is running near, let us get together. And so we finally succeeded over the past two weeks to get the parties together in the same room and things can move forward.”
Kevin Herrera, Gen. Manager, B.C.C.I.
“We’re looking at questions coming from civil society organizations and these questions will not be reviewed by co-sponsors. The political parties will definitely not see the questions going into it. So we will have some level of spontaneity with the questions in the debates. Apart from that it will be closed to the general public in terms of going in there physically and being in the debate room itself. However, we’re inviting all the media houses to cover the debate live.”
Dylan Vernon
“Our hope is that these debates grow in the future into something that people come to expect and that both parties and other political parties agree to participate in as a part of the normal process of our democracy – sharing with the people their views on issues, having this dialogue with people, looking at the issue of accountability of the parties to say what their vision is for our country and what their positions are in detail on issues. I think that if we succeed with this one this year in the next five years we will have people wanting another debate and perhaps even more.”
The audience for the debate, which will likely be held at one of Belize City’s three major hotels, will consist of students from tertiary level institutions. The one detail, which remains to be settled, is the identity of the moderator. That person’s name should be released shortly.
