Yesterday, we showed you a few excerpts from our interview with Henry Charles Usher, the Minister of Public Service, Constitutional and Political Reform. He discussed a series of topics, including an update on the Redistricting lawsuit from the Belize PEACE Movement.
For several years now, this citizen group has been agitating for the correction of a major imbalance in the sizes of the 31 electoral divisions countrywide. The constitution says that all the constituencies should be close to equal in size as possible. The Peace Movement continues to insist that the past UDP government and the current PUP administration have failed to do their duty under the constitution and correct it by conducting a proper redistricting exercise.
Members of the current government promised before the elections that a redistricting exercise would be made a priority. But, according to the PEACE Movement, they still don't see any political will to get it done.
In a press release sent 3 weeks ago, the Peace Movement says the Chief Justice directed both sides to settle Claim 55 of 2019 but they say the Elections and Boundaries Commission has rejected their draft order and made no counter-offer. So, the peace movement has asked the Court to make a formal judgment.
Yesterday, we asked Minister Henry Charles Usher about that position, and here's how he responded:
Hon. Henry Charles Usher - Minister of Public Service
"I find it interesting that the PEACE Movement keeps suggesting that they need to meet with me on this redistricting exercise. It doesn't fall under my portfolio. Yes, the Elections and Boundaries Department does come under my ministry, but redistricting is done by the Elections and Boundaries Commission. They are an independent commission, a bipartisan commission made up of members from the Government's side and from the Opposition's side. And from by constitution, they are the ones authorized to carry out this redistricting exercise. Now, I do get updates from the Chief Elections Officer, who tells me about what the Commission is planning, and they have put together a Taskforce that will be dealing with redistricting. I believe that Taskforce will start its work in January, and hopefully complete its work by July of 2023. Remember, when they are completed, and they make their recommendation, it then has to go to the House of Representatives, and it has to be passed in the House, for it to become law. It then takes effect after the next election. So, it will take effect when the next election is called. My personal opinion is that if they are about to carry out the work, it's a moot point at this point. Why carry on with this case, if their one objective, what they were claiming - the relief that they were claiming - is that the work of redistricting starts. It has started. From the reports I'm getting, it will be starting in earnest in January. I know the Taskforce has been - or is being - appointed. That Taskforce would include persons who are experts in statistics, persons who are experts in terms of mapping, GIS, and certain other things from lands, and certainly, somebody who will be doing the groundwork. In addition to the stats and the work in terms of mapping, you also need somebody on the ground to make sure that the natural boundaries are adhered to, make sure that a division doesn't run through a house, and one side of the house is one constituency, and the other side is another constituency. So, all of those exercises have to be done. It's not an overnight process. I know the PEACE Movement came, and one of their claims was that this thing can be done in a week. No, it cannot be done in a week. No matter how good your technology, no matter how good the program you have, you still need the groundwork to be done."
Despite Usher's view that the lawsuit no longer serves a meaningful purpose, the PEACE Movement insists that they will continue to pursue it until the constitutional imbalance of the size of the constituencies is repaired.
