Last night, we told you that the Senate will meet next week to ratify the Special Agreement on submitting the Guatemalan claim to the International Court of Justice. It turns out that they will be asked to ratify this amended protocol, and the principal agreement, which Belize and Guatemala signed in December of 2008.
We'll tell you more about that shortly, but first, the Barrow Government has agreed to amend Belize's referendum threshold. As viewers will remember, Belize has a requirement of 60% voter turn out for any referendum to be declared valid.
60% is considered high and supposedly that's what caused the Guatemalans to back out of the October 2013 date for simultaneous referenda in both countries.
Since then, the Barrow Administration has been carefully considering a change to the law so that a simple majority is all that would be needed to validate a referendum result in Belize. Well, come next week, the Government intends to take that to Parliament, where they will introduce motions to change the referendum law.
When we caught up with Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington today, he told us how it will be done, and why he hopes that this proposed change will be successful:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Cabinet has taken a decision to take the amendment to the referendum act and have it passed into law on the 9th December. The effect of that will be that when we hold the referendum, for there to be a successful referendum, the majority will have to be a simpler majority - 50% of those people who go to vote plus 1% and that is going to make the referendum successful one."
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Sir, we are effectively lowering our referendum threshold. Explain to us why this is necessary?"
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"All we are doing is making the referendum threshold consistent with all the other thresholds that we have for elections. It was never intended that a referendum should be any different. We had legislation which suggested a higher threshold in relation to referendum, but it had no intention of really being the case in relation to this particular issue. The intention was that it should be a simple majority, not an extraordinary majority. The Guatemalans were of that contemplation too, obviously, but when they heard of legislation passed in Belize in relation to referendum that have a higher threshold, they automatically, as they tend to be very suspicious and thought that this was a means of frustrating the effort of trying to resolve the matter by way of going to the ICJ referendum and maybe it is not unreasonable to think that they would form that view given the suspicion that surrounds whatever is done in relation to this matter by any of the two countries. But the move to amend the legislation is a perfectly good one. As matter of fact it is one that all our allies and supporters have expected us to do."
Organizations such as the independent political parties, BPP, and VIP, who do not want the law to be amended. Just a week and a half ago, the VIP sent out a scathing press release which says, "The VIP is appalled at this further act of appeasement to Guatemala." They say that a simple majority in voter turn out is not enough to make a decision which affects the entire population of the country.
We put that criticism to the Foreign Minister, and here's how he responded:
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"They view this as Belize somehow giving up ground or passively accepting pressure that Guatemala has brought on Belize. What's your thought on that?"
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"That view really has no basis. It's not a view that is grounded on any firm basis really. But human beings are complex and people form all kind of views and they are entitled to their views. I am simply saying that what we are doing now is what was contemplated from the 1960s and what was expected of us by the international community and what is right under the circumstances."
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