And what does the leader of the opposition have to say about it? He has his own take - he says the PUP are trying to chance the opposition.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"What they initially proposed was a proposal littered with gerrymandering, littered with the worst types of political interference you could imagine. They wanted to eliminate Collet and they wanted to eliminate Queen Square, but we pushed back and we have come, we're going to finalize it later on. After speaking to technical experts in redistricting, some of them that have advised the Belize Peace Movement, what the experts are saying should happen is that you should have an elimination of Fort George. Fort George and Caribbean Shores which is contiguous, should be put together. But again, for political reasons, the chairman of the PUP who is a sitting representative and his brother, who is also a sitting representative, they are not going to go down that route. If you want to meet the constitutional objectives, the proposal should be to merge, to take Freetown, Caribbean Shores and Fort George, take that three and make two. That two would be some of Caribbean Shores and go to Freetown and all of Fort George would go to Caribbean Shores and they would have to figure that out."
"Port Loyola, not Collet, Port Loyola should be broken up and given to Albert and Collet and then Queen Square should go into Mesopotamia. That is what the experts have advised that make sense, and Belize Rural South needs to be broken up. Those are two constituencies according to the constitutional mean which is about forty-six hundred to fifty-five hundred, because there is a room of error there. And that is not what they proposed. Initially, they proposed to eliminate Collet, eliminate Queen Square, leave Belize Rural South with the exception of, taking Caye Caulker and St. George's Caye to save Henry Charles, gut Albert and make that a part of Fort George. Move Polling Station 13 from Mesopotamia which is contiguous to Collet all the way over to Albert that there is no connection in Polling Station 13 in Mesopotamia. So these are the types of things that we have pushed back against."
Barrow says the UDP is prepared to launch legal challenges to make sure electoral balance is ensured.
