Immediately after the referendum results were announced, reports started emerging out of the Opposition that they were abandoning their court claim against the 2008 Special Agreement. You'll remember that as the case that produced the injunction which prevented the Barrow Government from holding the referendum on April 10th.
Before the May 8th referendum was held, the PUP said that they intended to pursue this case as far as they needed to, in their quest to prove that the Special Agreement is unlawful.
But the electorate has spoken, and Espat today confirmed that it is being aborted. He explained why:
Reporter
"The leadership of the PUP has taken the decision to in an essence to kill special agreement claim, what's your position on that? do you support it?"
Hon. Julius Espat
"Yes, I was one of the first to sit down with the party leader after the loss to tell him that we shouldn't continue. I believe legally, we have an excellent case that government did not follow the rule of law, but politically it is suicide because the people of Belize have already spoken and we have to accept and respect that and for that reason, we decided that the people have already decided and we are a family. Belize is a family, U.D.P. or P.U.P. and we can't quarrel about that situation now. It is over. It is now our responsibility in my opinion, as Opposition, to be able to pray, hope, work, do whatever is possible so that we get excellent representation so that the result five years from now can be as positive as it can for the country. That's all we can ask for."
Reporter
"What will you say about the expected backlash from people who will argue that if you believe the constitution is being violated why don't you push through to ensure that that is proven?"
Julius Espat
"The case has already gone in, the claim is there if anybody wants it they just have to put their name and continue. Let's see which other Belizeans want to take on the baton. We are now geared up for a general election. That is our focus. We are here to bring down this government and that is what we will do. We will work as hard as we can to beat them in the next general elections. That is our mission."
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