We also asked the Prime Minister about the concerns about his government's proposed Belize Constitution (Tenth Amendment) Bill of 2021.
As we told you, wants to enshrine a requirement that each member of the Belize Advisory Council, the Elections and Boundaries Commission, the Public Services Commission, and the Security Services Commission must vacate their post before a general elections cycle.
Belizeans have expressed concerns that this is a regression in the autonomy of government. That's because, if the amendment is passed, it puts these constitutional bodies under the direct influence of the ruling party that wins the general elections. Here's what the Prime Minister had to say when Jules challenged him on it last night:
Jules Vasquez
"That enlightened group came up with the Political Reform Commission. You know it well, and they specifically made the recommendation that listen, these bodies must be independent of the life of a government. You're reversing that now. Isn't that manifestly retrograde?"
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"What we are saying is that there has been this practice that when a government ends, people resign and give a chance to the new government. That has been the practice. The practice has been that you step down and you give the new government a chance. And that has always been so, but this is the very first time that we had people in the previous government refused to resign. And the most damn one was the one with the Public Service Commission, and the previous government made certain moves deliberately to stop our work. It was a deliberate plan. How can you say now that the Prime Minister back then, in good conscience, put somebody like a former UDP Minister to be in charge of the Public Service Commission? How can you say that the former government did, in good conscience, put the husband of a former UDP minister in the Public Service Commission? How can you say that the then government, the Prime Minister, put somebody there, a voter from Orange Walk Central, that if I were to tell you that the UDP is red, he will tell you no? It's blue, just because he is not going to do anything that I would want to support. So, we could not work with them. We tried to work with them, but they were blocking everything that we wanted to do. So, we have work to do, and we felt that the only way that we can fix it is by amending the constitution to ensure that no government would face this problem."
The PM also took on questions on the implications of this amendment for the Elections and Boundaries Commission. His party made another manifesto promise to create a Commission that is free from political influence. When we reminded him about that, the PM said that's still a part of his government's future agenda:
Jules Vasquez
"Elections and Boundaries, your manifesto, you said, ‘We will introduce an independent Elections and Boundaries Commission that shall be from political interference with a chairman who is appointed in a similar fashion as the DPP and Auditor General. He or she can be autonomous and free from the perception of government control.' 1 isn't that what we have with the Public Service Commission? So, isn't that the ideal? 2, look who you went and appoint, Oscar Sabido Puga, a former PUP candidate, Mr. Conrad Lewis, former PUP candidate. You are being one of those acrobats. You're talking like this, and you're acting like that."
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"That's not true, Jules. When we got in undermine this government."
