On Thursday's news we showed you how the churches were pushing to gather as many signatories as possible for their petition. They are trying to trigger a referendum on marijuana legalization in Belize. So, they went out to some of the busiest public spaces before the Easter break to collect signatures for their election petition.
After that sustained effort last week, the churches are reporting that they have passed the threshold needed to trigger the referendum.
They and the organizations in support of the referendum have started their vetting process to ensure that the signatories are registered voters. This morning, NEAB's Pastor Louis Wade and the Catholic Church's Father Tony Anderson were guests on Sunup on 7. That's when they announced that by their count, the referendum threshold has been met:
Pastor Louis Wade - NEAB Representative
"I helped with the counting for the evangelicals, and it included some Roman Catholics and some UDP numbers. After midnight last night, we've crossed the 9000 vetted signatures in our headquarters and we still have a thousand to vet. So, that's 10,000 that we have in our position possession. The Roman Catholics have about 7000 in their possession, and it contains primarily Roman Catholic numbers, with maybe a few, here and there, that have come in from other organizations. And so that brings us to 17,000. Today, the United Democratic Party, which has been a part of -they came on board to say that the people really needed to decide on this issue. They are bringing down 2000 petitions with them. And when you add that together you have 19,000. Now, we had talked about 13,000 that we had already and then we said five in five, which was 5000 petitions in five days. That drive was also extremely successful, which took us to the border of between 18 and 19,000. So, what we are doing today is that we are just allowing small little packages like these that are still floating around and coming from different parts of the country to come in. So, we can have a very good pillow, a buffer to make sure that we take up some, some extras when we go to the Governor-General. I want to thank people across the country for helping in so many ways. I hope to meet you all sometime in the next few days, but the numbers are in."
Later on in the discussion, the hosts asked the representatives of the churches about the Minister's resistance to a referendum, and whether or not the government can still say "no" to a national referendum on marijuana legalization. According to Pastor Wade, if the Briceno Government is following the Referendum Act, they will have no choice but to comply with the wishes of 10% of registered voters:
Pastor Louis Wade - NEAB Representative
"It does not speak to a minister talking about time. It does not speak to Cabinet. It does not speak to the government of Belize. It really speaks to a percentage of the voter registration list. And that voter registration list says 10%. When you get that 10% of signatures, designed in a specific way, it is submitted to the Governor-General. And so, we hope later today to call over our church senator and give him the good news. And then, he is going to take that off to the Governor-General. The Governor-General then makes the presentation of the 10% of the votes to the Elections and Boundaries Department, who will do their own vetting, after which, a referendum is written up."
Sunup Host
"Pastor Wade, how do you feel about the comments from Minister Musa about, you know, we're past the overall referendum. Even if we get all the signatures, he's like, this still has to be vetted in the cabinet. And, you know, the idea that we've already reached that point where it's like, what's the point of a referendum?"
Pastor Louis Wade
"Well, think about it. If the government gets these documents, the law has been broken. Isn't that so? [Laughs] You're shaking your head."
Sunup Host
"Well, I'm just saying, based on what I said - that's why I'm going based on what he is saying, that, you know, we're past."
Pastor Louis Wade
"He's an attorney at law. I don't know, you know, who is maybe an attorney with us, but it's Cabinet that's these documents, clearly, there is a breach of the law because it mentions the governor-general. It mentions the Elections and Boundaries Department. Here is the problem that I have. We either have a democracy and the rule of law or we have a group of people who can make up the law as they go along."
Of course, those Belizeans who have signed on to the petition haven't actually submitted a "no" vote to the legalization. In principle, they have agreed with the church that, in the practice of democracy, Belizeans should decide if they want the bill to become law or not. And, if a referendum does take place, the majority vote could still end up being a "yes".
Here's what the guests had to say about that possibility:
Sunup Host
"And so what are your thoughts in regards to that? Yes, we do understand that we're giving them the right to vote, but they can still vote in favor of the bill."
Father Tony Anderson - Roman Catholic Church/Bishop's Representative
"You know, democracy is a beautiful and dangerous thing because just because a majority of people want something doesn't make it right. But we live in a democracy. We love democracy. We trust democracy. We have to live with the consequences of democracy. And sometimes those are very beautiful - Most often they're very, very beautiful. And so we - I really trust that this should go to a vote. You're absolutely right. The signatures that have been gathered aren't a vote. There's no there's no vote. These are not ballots. This is just saying, let the people have a voice. I have a sense that - I didn't collect any signatures myself. But talking to people that did, they said it was like picking low-hanging fruit, that everybody they talked to wanted to sign. I think for two reasons. One reason is that I think the majority of Belizeans are against the marijuana-zation of Belize, that this country become known for being a marijuana republic. I think a majority of Belizeans don't want tourists coming here just because it's so easy to get Ganga here. We don't want to attract those kinds of tourists. We want to have a family environment in our beautiful jewel by the Carib Sea. So number one, I think it was easy to get those signatures because people are against the legalization of the growth, transportation, selling, consumption, and buying of marijuana in this country as if this were, you know, Holland - number one. And number two, people understand that we were in a democracy, and let's give the people a chance to vote. So, yeah, I'll sign that thing because I'm in favor of democracy."
As you heard in that interview from this morning, the initial plan was for the organizations hand over the petition documents to the Church Senator, Bishop Alvin Benguche, for his submission to the Governor-General. But, the tallying of the signatures is still continuing at this time.
This evening, we contacted Wade for an update, and he told us via text message, quote, "Senator Benguche has been notified that we reached the threshold and that final vetting is taking place currently in 4 locations countrywide." End quote.
