This evening, Plus TV's Pastor Louis Wade hosted a Zoom press conference to update the media on the push by the Churches to trigger a referendum on Marijuana Legalization using the petition process.
Wade, the selected Church spokesperson on the referendum petition, told 7News last week that they had already met that 10% threshold. But, when they reconciled the names of the Belizeans and the registered voters' list, some of the petitioners were not registered. So, the churches went back to the streets for most of this week to collect more signatures. They now think they have met the 10% threshold and then some.
Wade told the press that the Churches intend to submit the petition next Tuesday morning. Here's that discussion:
Pastor Louis Wade - Spokesperson for the Churches
"Senator Moses Benguche was notified by our Task force that we had reached the 10% triggering mechanism, so that he could officially inform the Governor-General that the threshold had been met and that we intended to trigger a referendum, using the laws of Belize. The Bishop was about to leave the country, and so, he wrote the Governor-General and left the country, returning early this week. The Governor-General has responded and has set Tuesday morning at 10 a.m., the 3rd of May, as the day when the small group will be going to visit the Governor-General. The Senator of the Church will be presenting the petition. We have a small buffer. These 19,000 signatures have been vetted, and we're approaching 20,000. So, we want to use the next couple of days to continue to shore up that buffer. And so, we expect any petitions that are outstanding to come in, so that they can be vetted on Monday, and presented along with all the petitions on Tuesday. The last couple of days, we have not been in the media much, because we were waiting for a response from the Governor-General, and we continued the process of vetting the petitions. We wanted to be sure, and are now very confident of the petitions that we will submit. Because of Re-registration, because most people have their ID cards, and there's also a vetting tool available on the Elections and Boundaries website, we're confident that we will submit will stand any true, rigorous, authentic, honest vetting."
Wade also discussed the legal opinion that the Bar Association released today. He said that the church was just about to get advice from their attorneys on the critical topics that the Bar reviewed:
Pastor Louis Wade
"In the past couple of days, comments continue to be made by certain Cabinet members in an effort to frustrate the referendum process, legal comments, such as too little too late, and legal comments such as case law being against the timing of the referendum. We were just about to get a legal opinion to be made public, when today, the Bar Association released a most welcoming statement regarding the authenticity of the referendum process that we are taking and the fact that referendum are part of an open democratic system. The Church is very much thankful to so many members of the general public, who have joined in with the Church to call for a referendum."
As you heard, the Churches will deliver their petition on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Our news team will be in Belmopan, and we'll tell you all about it in our Tuesday Newscast.
