Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow Raises Concerns over Redistricting Plans

The Leader of the opposition, Shyne Barrow, has been speaking on Redistricting for the past week. He has expressed concerns over the preliminary reports of how the redistricting is being proposed by the committee.  While the Prime Minister has said that he has been making an effort to not interfere in, Barrow has been on a campaign since he, too stands to lose the Mesopotamia division.  After walking out of the House Meeting today, he spoke to the media with evident upset over what he says is the government’s efforts to maintain the Musa dynasty.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “I don’t want to hear what Henry Charles thinks I was insinuating. The fact of the matter is if they would have allowed me to make my presentation on redistricting it would have been comprehensive. The fact is Fort George should not be merged into Caribbean Shores because it is the smallest. That was not the center of the point. The fact is that all the constituencies that are not at the mark need to merge with other constituencies. I, that is my point. Mine included but mine is being merged with Queen’s Square. I was there before Queen’s Square, ma’am. I was there before Queen’s Square. Your Amandala headline is wrong. Fort George was there before Caribbean Shores. So what I am proposing is not necessarily what the member from Port Loyola is proposing that Henry Charles go necessarily even though he might have to go because you know in the dynasty in the Musa dynasty you only got one Musa and you got one Usher so he will have to fight for that new constituency. What we’re saying is we don’t have an objection with the mergers of contiguous constituencies whether it’s Queen’s Square into Mesopotamia as it rightfully should be because Mesopotamia was there in 1961, Fort George was there in 1961 and Caribbean Shores came about in 1984 as a combination of Freetown – taking away from Freetown and taking away from Fort George to create Caribbean Shores. So what is fair, what is in keeping with the consent order that the courts decided on is to have equal representation and equal representation should not come at the risk of gerrymandering, transplanting voters from Caye Caulker into Fort George, voters from across the Belizean River in Alberts into Fort George to dilute the Fort George vote. In our country we have 31 representatives because we have a unique mixture of culture, of perspectives and we in our constitution have decided that each part of our nation deserves representation and equal representation. The people in Belize Rural South are a unique people that have a distinct ambition, aspirations, frustrations, and challenges. It is a disservice to them to move them into Fort George. Really? All to save the Musa dynasty. So Fort George should stay. Caribbean Shores is what needs to go but the reason I attack Fort George is because he will have to yield to Musa because Musa, Kareem Musa, runs the Musa dynasty.”