At the top of the news, we told you about the injunction hearing in front of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. He's currently deliberating on whether or not he will stop the April 10th ICJ referendum.
Several PUP parliamentarians have gone to the court to challenge the Special Agreement that the Governments of Belize and Guatemala signed back in 2008 to settle the territorial dispute at the ICJ. They assert that the Government failed to properly ratify this treaty in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and from their perspective, that makes the Special Agreement defective.
For 4 and a half hours, the judge listened to arguments from Eamon Courtenay for claimants, and Lisa Shoman and Professor Westmin James for the Government. The Claimants say that they have a constitutional right for their grievances with the Special Agreement to be heard before the referendum is held. On the other side, the Government says that the parliamentarians had years to bring this lawsuit, and that huge sums of money and human resources have been invested to prepare for the referendum, for it to be shut down so late.
But, what did the hundreds of protesters have to say? While we were at court, we got a chance to speak with a few of them, and they explained why they came out to support the PUP in this lawsuit:
The Chief Justice will deliver his judgement on whether or not he will grant the injunction at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. We'll be there to tell you what he decides.
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