Is Elections & Boundaries Commission Attempting to Suppress the Media?

On July seventh, the Elections and Boundaries Commission issued a release informing that the redistricting exercise is completed.  The idea is to divide Belize into no less than twenty-eight electoral divisions, each in such a way that registered voters are equitably distributed across the country.  The conclusion of the exercise is welcome news; however, the announcement on Friday that the media is not to publish or disseminate the report or its contents prior to the document being tabled in the House of Representatives was off-putting.  That’s because the Elections and Boundaries Commission referred to the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives.  Those guidelines, we understand, are for parliamentarians in the National Assembly only.  Former Prime Minister Dean Barrow elaborates.

Dean Barrow

Dean Barrow, Former Prime Minister

“I don’t recollect the particular standing order, but right away it strikes me that the standing orders are to govern proceedings in the chamber, in the house and in the senate and if members of the legislature breach the standing orders, they can be called to account.  I’m not quite sure how the media would be breaching the standing orders of parliament if in pursuit of the media’s duty, in pursuit of freedom of the press the media were to publish excerpts or perhaps the entire report from the redistricting committee.  Once the media got hold of that report, I don’t see it, I think that’s a poor effort at trying to suppress the media from discharging its duty in a democracy and clearly that effort, I’m sure, has already backfired, if not, it will backfire.”