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What Will The State Do If Voters Say No?
posted (December 14, 2018)
But if they don't get that "yes" vote, how would the government respond to a "no" vote? And what would they say to the diplomatic community which has been pushing, and paying, for Belize and Guatemala to settle their dispute at the ICJ. The PM said - in the event of a "no" - government would have to react quickly:..

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Clearly we will have to do some maneuvering. We will have to be very fast on our feet if there is a no vote, in terms of making good with the diplomatic community. Since it is a fact that the diplomatic community overwhelmingly would wish for us to take this matter to the ICJ. But I don't think anyone ought to suggest that if we voted no, it would mean that the diplomatic community would completely cut us off. There will be some tension. There will be an effort that would have to be made to get us back on the good foot. But exercising our democratic right to vote in a way that the majority of Belizeans decide surely cant result in the international community saying you know what, we no longer support you and your independence and territorial integrity. That's not the way it works. It just is not the way it works. There will be as I said consequences that we have to get around, but it is not correct for anybody to suggest that a no result will be apocalyptic in terms of Belize's diplomatic survival. We are resilient people. We are talented people. I am so very proud of all the public officers for example, that put together more and more Belize on the world stage, in term of the abilities of our very small diplomatic corner, but very talented diplomatic corner. Those people together with the entirety of the Belizean nation, the strength of the Belizean nation. The resilience, the ability to bounce back. When you look at it in the round, no matter what happens, we as a country will survive. We as a country will move forward."

It's worth underscoring here that the Prime Minister is taking a very different tack and tone from his Foreign Minister who yesterday said that if Belizeans vote "no", Guatemala might invade.

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