The ICJ referendum will be held on Wednesday May eighth. That's in 20 days, or just a shade under three weeks. The new date was announced today after the Governor General issued a Writ of Referendum - under the new law passed this week - that's the Belize Territorial Dispute Referendum Act.
The bill was passed with comfortable majorities in the House and Senate - but the question now is whether the PUP will challenge this new law in court. After the Easter break on Tuesday - they will have exactly two weeks to do so.
It's a likelihood, but also a political gamble for the opposition - which does not want to be seen as deliberately obstructionist. There is also a political risk for the ruling party - as its tattered credibility in court cases - can scarcely afford to suffer another legal setback.
Last week Friday in the debate over the law, the Prime Minister said they made the new law as immune to legal challenge as possible:...
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"No bill can be made challenge proof, but we have had not just the drafting people in the attorney general's ministry look at this. We've had a number of luminaries throughout the Caribbean, including people at the level of judges who have assured us that this bill passes all constitutional muster. They say what's the rush? How do you mean what's the rush? There is no rush. We announced the holding of a referendum 1 year ago and it was fixed for April 10th. How can you say that you succeeded in getting it postponed to the upset, I keep telling you of a number of right thinking Belizeans. How can you say that our coming now to say alright, courts have said it must be postponed. Postponed it is, it has been. We will try to reinstate it as quickly as possible so that that vote that we are all agreed upon can take place the soonest."
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