Are you fed up with your area representative? Do you feel they aren't doing enough? Or not doing what they promised? Well, soon, with a new law that was tabled in the House Of Representatives today, you'll be able to recall them!
Of course, it's not quite that simple, first you'd have to get 30% of your constituents to sign unto a petition - pass that unto the governor general, who would then set up a referendum, and if you get 65% of the constituency...well, the recall is in effect.
Yes, it's a little involved, and Prime Minister Dean Barrow gave a further explanation of the process.
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"What the bill does Mr. Speaker is to provide for the recall of a divisional representative upon a petition for such recall being presented to the Governor General of this country. There are safeguards, that petition must be signed by at least 30% of the registered electors in the particular constituency. No reasons for recall need to be assigned in the petition, so the field is wide open now for constituents who feel that their representative is not performing properly to take advantage of this legislation. Once the referendum is held there is a requirement for 65% of the registered electors in the division to participate in the referendum, once that threshold is met, a simple majority of the votes casts by the 65%, a simple majority saying that the representative is to be recalled will do the trick. Thereafter there has to be a by-election and that particular representative cannot participate in the by-election."
Jules Vasquez
"This recall bill, we know that it's one of the reform platforms you were elected upon and it's a very progressive one. But at the same time we don't see anything about the reformed senate."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"It ain't going to happen! I've made the point, perhaps this is the first time I am able to do so to you, but I have not been shy at all of saying this, giving the way the opposition fought against all the reform measures. Given the way the opposition has demonstrated - and I am not faulting them - its determination to be a completely non-cooperative, Restore Belize being a case in point, I do not see at this stage giving over control of the senate to the opposition even if it would have to be in conjunction with the social partners, I am not going to do it."
Jules Vasquez
"It's a manifesto promise."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Then it's a manifesto promise that I gladly break. It is clear to me that I was perhaps overly idealistic in introducing that element of the reform package. In any event I am satisfied that to do that now would lead to paralysis in government and that's not going to happen."
The recall of representatives bill was presented for its first reading only today - so it will have to go for consultations at the committee level before it goes back to the house.
The reformed senate - which is now permanently on the backburner - would have increased the number of senators by adding civil society representatives and thus taken the majority control away from the government....
