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He sent the matter up to the whole court because - as he said - he may be wrong. That whole court met from three pm to 5:30 and both sides spoke to us when they came out of the courtroom:..

Marion Alley, Reporter
"Mr. Barrow, just for the sake of everybody that we have the understanding of the court. Simplify for us the difference the 4pm and the 2pm adjournments?"

Denys Barrow, SC Attorney for Government
"The 4pm injunction remains in place. The decision will be given at 2 o' clock so until they give that decision the injunction holds the position."

Jules Vasquez
"So what is the state of play? The Governor General cannot accede - well no restraint is against him but presumable the AG cannot take it to him. That still stands?"

Denys Barrow, SC Attorney for Government
"AS far as the court is concern and I presume as far as the AG is concern but again I have not looked at it closely myself, so I can't say but I think the intention has been that it should not progress. Whether that has been effective - it's not for me to say."

Jules Vasquez
"Now as we move into the judgment tomorrow. I know you don't want to preempt [Denys Barrow - absolutely will not] what the court will say but is it your feeling that this time tomorrow the 9th will have been sign into law by the Governor General, because at 4pm the Mendes will expire?"

Denys Barrow, SC Attorney for Government
"Well if the court gives a decision in our favor at 2, the Mendes injunction disappears at 2 o' clock. So whenever the full court gives a decision that marks the end of the matter."

Marion Alley, Reporter
"But then if there is a delay for some purpose then you will have to go back for appeal for another......?"

Denys Barrow, SC Attorney for Government
"The Court of Appeal - this full court will decide at 2 o' clock tomorrow how matters will go and so if there is a delay then the court will decide whether to give a further injunction or not."

Jules Vasquez
"At the conclusion of this hearing what is the feeling of yourself and your clients?"

Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for Vaughan Gill & Ricardo Castillo
"Well we hope that the full Court of Appeal will - well you know that the injunction is in place first of all - that was not an upset by this full court and we hope that as we prayed for an application the full court will varied the order of the single judge and extend the injunction to cover until the appeal is heard, the full determination of the appeal."

Jules Vasquez
"Are you satisfied with what transpired in court? Today it seems at times (this is just an outsiders' perspective) that you all were fighting uphill because the precedents nor the law necessarily support the binding nature or the needfulness of your referendum."

Godfrey Smith
"I will not deny that it is not the easiest of cases but I thought that our side made sufficient points to distinguish the one Privy Council case that everybody refers to which is the decision of "Vellos" that started here in Belize, but we believe that we made sufficient points to attempt to distinguish that and hopefully the court will be attracted to those points of distinction."

Jules Vasquez
"It has been an extraordinary weekend in terms of weekend hearings; Sunday hearings, 6am hearings. At the end of do you feel that it would have all been worth it?"

Godfrey Smith
"Well absolutely I feel that it would have been worth it regardless of how the decision goes Jules because I think it's good for democracy. It's invigorating for the democratic process and you know a lot of people have said 'well how this came about? How come they sit on Saturday, Sunday etc., at 6 in the morning?' Actually there is nothing extraordinary about that in other places. Courts meet to do that. They provide a service just like every other service provider. They get paid to provide a service and providing you can show that your situation merits an emergency hearing - courts should do that. It happens all the time in many parts of the Common Wealth."

Jules Vasquez
"How do you respond? The other side made a criticism that this all just political - that your clients are political operatives and the motivation for all this is political and the court should not effects what the opposition could not do in the legislature."

Godfrey Smith
"This is not the first case in which the issue of referendum arises. In the "Vellos" case that everybody refers to - laws on both sides - judges at every stage that deals with referendum and what is the meaning of the referendum act and when it should be held etc. We have followed right in the wake of that case. This case is about the referendum act, the democratic process and under what conditions and the timing of referendums when it should be held or when it shouldn't be held."

"Nobody will deny the case emanates from a political context. Everything is Belize is hugely political as we all know and so in that sense its political but certainly the actual claim that brought is legal and the simple proof of that is that at no stage neither before the Chief Justice or before the single judge nor indeed before the Court of Appeal - at none of those stages have any of the judges said this is frivolous vexatious claim. Chief Justice Benjamin characterizes it as a serious issue. He wasn't persuaded and for the same reason the single judge did not think that it merit an emergency hearing - he would have thrown it out."

Jules Vasquez
"He said it has very little prospect of success."

Godfrey Smith
"He did say that but that is not the same thing as saying it's a frivolous case - it's brought for political motives etc. It has a meaning."

Marion Alley, Reporter
"It that the end of it Godfrey? Tomorrow when the ruling is made will that be the end of it or will you still have.....?"

Godfrey Smith
"It depends on what is the outcome of the decision of the full court. After we see and read what they have to say just as we did when we got the decision from the Supreme Court we will take it on advisement - we will examine the decision and see where we go from there. Thank you all."

The court of appeal will announce its decision at two tomorrow afternoon. At that time it will either extend or remove the injunction against the Attorney General. If he extends it, the Ninth will continue to be delayed before it becomes the law; if he removes it, the ninth will be signed into law almost immediately.

We'll of course, have a full report on that tomorrow.