PM Says Campaign Finance Laws Unlikely Under Current Administration

While another other election on the horizon, the country’s is still without any laws to govern how political parties’ source campaign funds. In 2023, the Belize Chamber of Commerce had produced a draft campaign finance bill. The bill’s main sought to create transparency in the source of funding and the expenditure targets in political campaigns. However, while the Ministry of Constitutional and Political has been reviewing the draft and comparing it to regional laws, there is still no word on whether it will be enacted into law. Well, this morning, Prime Minister John Briceno stated that it definitely won’t happen under his current administration. Briceno spoke on the complexities of such laws and the need to craft them to suite Belize’s political landscape. 

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “I think it’s something, it’s a must. Like I tell everybody, I wish we could have that because then it will ease the burden me in trying to raise millions of dollars for a campaign, it ends up being quite expensive. It is in effect 31 campaigns because each constituency has their own campaign. So we want to finance legislation. Not reform because there is no legislation, but we do want that and do support it. And the time has come to be able to do that and it’s something that we need to tackle early at the start of our government. Again, it has to be something that can be workable within the Belizean context because in some countries you have these thick pieces of legislation and it still does not work. Again, the United States is a perfect example whereby this last election cycle cost the American people, well, they spent about five billion dollars. Each candidate for the presidency spent about a billion dollars each. Imagine a billion dollars. So we have to make sure that is something that is doable within the Belizean context.”

Campaign financing laws are a part of anti-corruption measures the unions have been clamoring for.