Last month, 7News told you Oceana Belize's litigation against the Government of Belize in relation to the failed referendum.
Viewers may recall that after Oceana went through the lengthy process to convince the Belizean public to sign the petition for the referendum, and the Elections and Boundaries Department voided 8,042 of the signatures.
Well, Oceana didn't accept this and the filed a claim in court because, according to them, GOB refused to explain why the signatures were rejected.
Today, they won a major victory before Justice Arana, who allowed a petition for a case to be heard on full judicial review in relation to the disqualification process by the Chief Elections Officer.
So, the decision of whether or not these signatures were unreasonably disqualified is now in the hands of the court.
Oceana's Vice President, Audrey Matura-Shepherd, explained more:
Audrey Matura - Shepherd - VP, Oceana Belize
"Today we went to court because before you can actually have a case for judicial review, you must ask the court permission to bring the case and so, that was the hearing we were having today. We had made the application since May 4, and the Government was given time to respond and see whether they objected to the application or not. Today, when we went to court, they filed their objections; it was a thick document saying what are their arguments for objection, and the cases which supported it. As a result of course, the learned judge, Madam Arana, listened to both sides. At the end of the day, having heard all the arguments, she ruled that Oceana, Audrey Bradley and Tom Greenwood could now file the application for judicial review. This means now that it is now in the court's hands to look at how the Chief Election's Officer determined that these people should have been disqualified. That is a major victory what happens now is that it is no long hearsay and political banter. It is an established court of law that will look at the situation based on principles of law, and make a determination, should these signatures been disqualified or not. And, it is even more significant because we have never been able to hold a referendum started by a people's movement under the new law, which was amended."
GOB has 21 days to file an appeal against this decision to allow the judicial review.
