Earlier in the news we told you that Enriquez and Ramlogan's redistricting case had been dismissed by Justice Hondora. But the Belize Peace Movement's case has been in the court since November, and they've been waiting since then to have their day in the courtroom. It's been over a month since their last submission and they still have not been called in. Today some of the claimants along with their attorney held a press conference and outlined the timeline since they filed the case.
Paul Morgan, BPM
"November 21st we filed this case in the aftermath of case 55 of 2019 simply because we had reason to believe that the elections would be called without the Election and Boundaries Commission doing what it should do, doing what we all expected it to do. So like I said, in November 2024, we filed the case 7:30 and we got a call surprisingly from the court some 11 days thereafter, very quickly. And in that hearing, we were asked to present to the court why and this was the judge bringing in this issue, why our case should not be treated as res judicata in taking two bites of the apple meaning it has been settle before. And so he asked us to put in a presentation and he asked the defendants also to put in a presentation as to why it shouldn't be res judicata. That presentation should have been in the order it should be in by the 13th of January. On the 13th of January, both presentations from the claimants were in. At this point in time, we are waiting for the court to call us, that is over a month now, to call us even though we asked for urgency because we believed the elections would be called even though elections are not due, please remember elections are not due."
"If this election is called without fixing the division list, the schedule 1, if it is called our rights will be abrogated, our rights will be violated, all of us together and this is why our case is so important."
Roody Wade, BPM
"It affects me dearly hence the reason why I'm so passionate to see that redistricting is being done. So far, it's only me, this administration has held two illegal elections already in my personal view and another one, if he holds another one, it's going to be illegal, but he has the power and the mandate to call an election but the thing is, all we are asking for is to make it equal. If you have an area that has 2,000, 3,000 people and you have areas that have 10,000, 9,000, where's the equal? So any right thinking person would do the right thing."
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