By law, the voters re-registration - which is supposed to take place every ten years - should have been held in 2007. But, at the time citing imminent elections - the then Said Musa administration passed a law to defer it for another five years. They had no problem getting agreement on this from the UDP - which was then in opposition. And that's probably because once something is for their own benefit politicians never seem to have a problem agreeing on anything.
After all - the representatives on both sides of the house know that a bloated list - while it might not be great for democracy - serves them just fine. That's because successful politicians know the list in and out - better than preachers know the bible - and a re-registration exercise could change all that.
And so the Musa administration pushed it back another five years from 2007 to 2012. Well, today the UDP went back to the house with a bill to push re-registration back another five years. This time they say it is because the exercise is so costly.
And, bad democracy but great politics, so we would have thought that the opposition would have agreed - just as its predecessor did. But, not so! It seems the new Blue crew wants to flex and today they made their opposition known when the bill was introduced.
Here's some of the testy exchange:...
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"They are here today intent of ramming through this amendment and closing the door on re-registration, we find that to be very disrespectful and I can say talking to other political parties they feel the same way. We should have had a national discussion and consultation on this matter."
"As I said Mr. Speaker, it goes to the very heart of our democracy. Every member will know that in politics your voters list, your electoral list is effectively your bible and the integrity of that list must be protected at all times at all cost. The fact is that the present voters list is tainted, it's bloated, its disproportionate - that is the reality, its needs to be cleaned up. We all know there are thousands of deceased persons still on the list. We know there are thousands of persons who no longer live in the areas that they are registered."
"In fact, many of them don't live in the country. There are large numbers of people living at the same address, in some areas you have houses infamous addresses where you have 40-50 people registered at the same address."
Hon, Michael Finnegan
"I will have to take you back a bit in history for you and the public to understand what is happening here while this same party over there was in power. At that time Phillip Goldson was the leader of the then National Independence Party and while Mr. Goldson was
playing Queensbury role, they were playing karate and when Lindo came in, he decided to play you all to your own game. In other words we will not play Queensbury role no more but we will play karate against karate and Lindo and started to do the same thing - double registration - on election day, one man voted 5-7 times. I am telling you Mr. Speaker, those same people cross there. They stole by double registration."
"When the Esquivel administration decided that they were going to do a new registration they protested Mr. Speaker, they went into the streets and at KREM radio - on all the radio stations about how the re-registration that we are doing is foolishness - that we want to pad up the list and steal the election and they cry bloody murder Mr. Speaker. Bloody murder they cried. That list that they had was for 19 years Mr. Speaker, but when this UDP wanted to change it they cried bloody murder. But Mr. Speaker, the elections were called and under the same list only me, Barrow and Contreras got elected. The Prime Minister won by 10 votes. They won all the seats in the new registration."
Hon. Julius Espat
"All you guys that have been there that have your secret voters all over the place, we have them linked you know, you have two of your members that won over there only because we on this side gave them information and it was bought, understand that, it was bought. You are not there because you have a mandate from the people."
"Mr. Speaker, the days of politricks is over. The Belizean people demands that everything be done in a fair way and that is what we are asking for, not the politricks of old and it could be both sides but that doesn't make it right. We are saying the people of Belize are tired of this, they are tired of the hypocrisy on the other side and we want it real. So my brother if you leave it, you know what might happen? you might two over there the next time, two."
And despite the protest, the Ay's had it - and the bill for an act to amend the representations of the people act went through all three readings and was passed by the house - meaning that the next re-registration is now slated for 2017 - unless they find another way to defer it at that time.
In more charitable news from the house DFC write-offs were also tabled today. These will see the write off of student loans and housing loans. Here's how the PM presented it:..
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I hereby approve and confirm that the minister of finance and economic development will authorize the DFC to write-off the said outstanding balance of $955,957.32 on education loans and then set off this amount against other monies due to the government from the DFC."
"Now therefore be it resolved that this honorable house being satisfied that it would be in the public interest to give debt relief to small home owners hereby approve and confirm that the minister of finance and economic development may authorize DFC to write-off the outstanding balance of $2 million plus on the said loans and then set off this amount against other monies due to the government from the DFC."
We'll have more form the house meeting on Mondays news.
