Government to Amend Referendum Act to Separate Local From National Issues

The incoming changes to the Referendum Act will see a separation of localized issues from national issues. As we reported yesterday, the Government of Belize is making changes to the act following the success of the referendum petition by the group, Legalize It Caye Caulker. While the group is being praised for its progressive initiative to take the legalization and regulation of the marijuana industry for the island to a referendum, concerns were raised about the national impact of such a decision. Minister of Constitutional Affairs, Dr. Louis Zabaneh, says that the amendments to the law will seek to ensure that local and national issues are handled accordingly. 

Dr.Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Constitutional Affairs: “In the sense that as Prime Minister had mentioned it has national implications being decided upon by a small community and so I don’t think that was the purpose that was trying to be achieved by the act and I think then now we have to improve it so that small communities can deal with issues related to their communities but the national issues have to be deal with at a national level.”

Government has not yet issued a timeline on when the drafting of the amendments would commence.