Minister Explains Procedure for Redistricting

Redistricting continues to be a pressing issue in Belize, with the Elections and Boundaries Commission still working through the complex process of how best to carry out a fair and balanced redistribution of electoral divisions. While the Commission examines data and proposals, the process has not been without legal hurdles, several court cases have emerged over the years, reflecting both public concern and political tension surrounding the issue.  One of the most notable cases occurred in 2022, when the Belize Peace Movement (BPM) took the government to court, arguing that the current electoral boundaries violate the constitutional principle of equal representation. Minister of Constitutional and Political Reform, Henry Charles Usher, recently addressed the matter explaining the procedure for redistricting. 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Political Reform: “Election and Boundaries Commission is constitutionally mandated to look at the borders of all the electoral divisions from time to time. It doesn’t say it has to be every 10 years, every 5 years. They can do that every year if they feel that the need is there to do that.  So that work is an ongoing exercise. It’s not that they start it one time and they stop. They have to continuously look at the borders and make recommendations as to the electoral borders.  So  I do believe that their work has continued since they presented that last report in 2023. As I said, back when they presented that report, I think that they did not have all the information they needed to put forward a proper report. Why? Because the census had not been completed yet. If you look at this constitution, it speaks about the total population tt does not speak about the electoral… voters in the constituency. So how can you know the total population if the census had not yet been completed? They were using a census from 2010 and using a growth rate that was projected from 2010 which has proven to be inaccurate. Because if they had used that growth rate back then we would have been around 450,000 to 460,000 in our population. The census that was released last year shows the population closer to 400,000. So, seeing all that, now that the Commission has that information, they can now go about doing their job, looking at the boundaries for these electoral divisions. And if they believe that there has to be more electoral divisions then they make that recommendation, it goes to Parliament, a bill is then prepared, and then it is debated in the House.”

The BPM contended that some constituencies have significantly more registered voters than others, thereby diluting the power of certain votes. The Supreme Court ruled that the boundaries were indeed imbalanced but stopped short of mandating immediate changes, citing the constitutional authority of the Elections and Boundaries Commission. Usher further explained that sometimes the legal matters stall the process. 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Political Reform: “I do think that we have to be able to at least send a signal that bringing these types of cases frivolously or over and over and over is costly and so we have to try to discourage that. There is a decision and there was a decision that had been made before and this new decision pretty much just reinforced that and said, you know, the previous decision was accurate. So if they continue to bring these cases then it goes beyond just a public interest matter and it becomes kind of, you know, too much. So we have to look at that because there is a cost and I’m sure as the unions agree, we want to keep down costs as much as possible.”

There is still no definite timeframe as to when this will take place.