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You'll hear all about that later on, but first to the most controversial bit from today's meeting. The PUP's senior member Said Musa spoke on the adjournment about the woeful state of affairs at the Vital Statistics Unit which is now affecting the voters' re-registration process. As many as five thousand names are in limbo because vital stats cannot find their stats. Musa said it needs urgent attention - and the UDP's Michael Finnegan agreed:...

Hon. Said Musa - PUP Fort George
"And I would invite him to take, it is not too late Mr. Prime Minister, a closer look at what has been happening in the vital statistics department. He will find, not only an old dilapidated system in place. And, just moving from one building to another, albeit well refurbished and everything else, will just not cut it because it is the system that we are dealing with here; of records of births and deaths with pages missing from the records, with pages eaten up by rodents and insects and records missing. As a result, this whole reregistration exercise that we have just gone through has led to a serious situation where thousands- over 5,000 persons- are on, what is called, a pending list. When this thing started madam speaker, we were told, I certainly was, that if your voter or if your constituent can't find his or her birth certificate but does have his social security card, showing clearly where he was born, we will accept the application and we, Elections and Boundaries Department will assume the responsibility to ensure that that person was registered by checking with the vital statistics, at no cost to those poor people. Well, we are finding out now madam speaker that that has not been happening. So, I am raising this matter madam speaker because I know for a fact that our representatives, in particular from the Toledo District and indeed from Stann Creek West have hundreds of outstanding birth certificates that they can't get and therefore their people cannot get registered. So, it makes a mockery of the reregistration exercise. Something needs to be done because otherwise it will look, as already some are believing, that discrimination is at play here- political discrimination."

Hon. Michael Finnegan - UDP Mesopotamia
"But let us not play politics with it. What is happening is not only happening to you over there from the People's United Party. They are thousands of applications at the Vital Statistics, at our office also, that is awaiting verification and we cannot find, we cannot get the birth certificate for these people so that these people can be registered. So, there is a problem but that problem needs to be solved and that problem must not be solved only within initiatives coming from this side of the House. We will have to sit down as parliamentarians and come up with some agreement or some law to rectify the situation that is happening so that, if we make the remedy on this side of the House you will use for politics against we. We do not want that. And the Vital Statistics, as you said, is an important organ in this country. And you can't just run the place loose. You run up there and say, 'I born in Belize and I born 1926,' and so they open book and give you birth certificate. We are between a rock and a hard place. But at the same time I agree with you. There are people who born legitimately in this country and they cannot find their statistics. I have a lady on 56 George Street right now; I won't call the poor lady's name. This lady registered to vote in every election but hear what her problem is now. When the lady went up there for her birth certificate they can't find it. When I finally get up there, part of the registration book, a piece of the page was torn out of the thing. And because the thing tore out of the page, they don't want to give the lady her birth certificate; in my view that is unfair."

And - here now is the other part of his presentation - which we showed you first, in error. Musa pointed to a deeper problem underpinning this one. Public Hospitals are refusing to register births if the medical bills are not fully paid. This, he said has the effect of leaving born Belizeans as stateless persons:..

Hon. Said Musa- PUP Fort George
"The problems start, if we really go back to how this problem originates, right at the hospital. A poor mother cannot get a certificate showing that her child was born and delivered in the public hospital unless they pay the bill first or unless they make adequate arrangements, that is the language used, to pay by installments. Plus, they have to put down payment. Now, madam speaker, what that leads to is that there will be thousands of children born in Belize who are not registered, stateless and unregistered. And of course if they go to Vital Statistics and they will find that they have no birth certificate registered and then they are told, 'Well you have to apply for a late registration.' And the late registration has to provide proof that you were born in Belize, at the hospital for that matter. And then you go to the hospital and then they are saying well the person hasn't paid the bill, so you can't get the certificate. Now, that to me is outrageous."

Hon. Pablo Marin- UDP Corozal Bay
"The problem is that they did it on their own in the hospital and we already have called the hospitals. They did an internal arrangement and we have stopped because they have also mentioned to me the same problems that the honorable member has mentioned. It is already sent all over the country, it is supposed to be stopped. If anybody has any problem they can contact us in the Minister because that shouldn't happen."