9th Amendment to House of Representatives

As we reported on Wednesday, the House of Representatives will meet this coming Friday in Belmopan. The Prime Minister will be taking back the Ninth Amendment to the constitution which seeks to entrench government control on utilities.  In the ninety days since its introduction, consultations were held nationwide. The atmosphere was extremely political as supporters of both parties filled the galleries to voice party support. While the issue of nationalization has garnered support, there has been opposition to other sections of the proposed amendment.  The House Committee meets on Monday when it is expected that some adjustments will be made before the Bill goes back to the House for a vote. The opposition under John Briceño on October first passed a resolution saying NO to the Ninth but there is a new sheriff in the opposition. Before the Bill was drafted and before he became Interim leader, Mark Espat said he supports majority ownership of public utilities by the government. It is now expected that his position will reflect the contents of the party’s resolution as well as the language of the final Bill. As to the twenty-one thousand signatures collected by Friends of Belize to trigger a referendum, given the timeline for the next House meeting, it clearly means that government is not inclined to give it any consideration. Two legal experts have weighed in on the ninth. Professor Albert Fiadjoe concluded that there are “powerful reasons why the Government’s resolve to turn the legal evolution of Belize on its head …must not be allowed to happen.” The other expert, Peter Gerangelos, observed that “if the Constitution itself provides the mechanism for its own amendment and if a proposed amendment law is enacted pursuant to that mechanism, then the content of the amendment cannot be challenged. If there is a constitutional challenge, the court is limited only to examining whether the correct amendment procedure was followed.”