The first business session of the House of Representatives is slated for next Friday, April 25, and it seems that the 31 newly elected members of the House will have their work cut out for them. A press release issued from the Government of Belize on Wednesday informs that Cabinet had met the day before, on Tuesday, April 15, 2008, and agreed on the introduction of a number of amendments that address politics and governance, as well as public finance matters.
Since the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) has more than three-fourths of the seats in the House, it can legally push through any constitutional amendment it pleases.
Politics and Governance
More people power
Most notable among the list of Cabinet decisions related to politics and governance is that the administration will introduce a bill to empower electors to recall elected area representatives. The term of the current House members ends in 2013, but a recall mechanism would enable them to be fired before the term ends, for reasons such as incompetence and corrupt activities.
Currently, only the National Assembly can call a referendum via a resolution, but a bill to amend the Referendum Act will give electors the power to be able to trigger a national referendum on matters they feel is of public importance, but only if they account for 10% of registered electors in the country, or by 25% of registered voters in a district or area in which the referendum is proposed to be conducted.
In the case of the last referendum held on February 7, 2008, to ask voters if they want an elected Senate or not, there was the question over the validity of the results because even though 61.5% of those who voted said “yes,” only 46.6% of electors, less than half the voting population, participated in the referendum, and many said they did not vote, not because they disagreed, but because they did not understand what they were voting about.
Even though the Opposition People’s United Party, which had called the referendum while in Government, had said that the referendum results were clearly in favor of the elected senate, the ruling party has said that the low level of participation meant that there was no mandate to act on the results.
To do away with the uncertainty over a referendum’s validity in the event of low voter participation, the Barrow administration is proposing that the results of a referendum should be considered valid when it has the participation of at least 60% of eligible electors in the country, district or area in question; and the simple majority rule would apply.
Senate reform
For its part, the new administration is moving with the reform it had promised in its pre-election campaign, that is, enlarging the Senate by adding one seat for the non-government organizations, which would make the total number of senators 13, with the president drawn from outside the pool of Senators.
The Government said that the enlargement and reconfiguration of the Senate means that non-government senators have a combined majority. Currently, the Opposition holds three seats, the ruling United Democratic Party 6 seats, and the trade unions, private sector and church community hold one seat each.
The proposed constitutional amendment will reach further to extend the powers and functions of the Senate, in a manner that will enable the Senate to initiate and conduct inquires into the operations of any government office or public statutory body, said the release.
We expect that due to the sharply differing views the Opposition and the ruling party hold on this issue, there will be a healthy debate on this point.
Limiting term of a Prime Minister
The administration is also moving to institute a three-term limit for the Office of Prime Minster, “to prevent any semblance of or progression towards authoritarianism.” We note that no prime minister has held office for more than two terms since the country became Independent in 1981.
Public Finance
Amendments will also be tabled to address public finance matters – the first is to enable the Auditor General to submit his report directly to the National Assembly rather than having to go through the Minister, in the event that the Minister of Finance receives the report but fails to table it.
Via a change in the Freedom of Information Act, the administration will also move to outlaw secrecy in government contracts – a refreshing move in light of the recent sequence of events that led to the former administration secretly diverting $40 million of public funds to pay off a private debt, which was secretly guaranteed by the former prime minister.
The purpose of the amendment, says Government, is to prohibit the secrecy of any public contract or other public documents. There will continue to be an exception to the rule applied to documents whose release “could endanger national security or diplomacy.”
Prime Minister Barrow told the media last week that he would also be introducing measures in the House next Friday to enable preventative detention, and to increase the scope of wire tapping surveillance. While this issue has continued to be a hot button issue in the public domain, nothing was said on this point in this week’s Cabinet release.
Ninety days expire on May 8. That’s how long the new Dean Barrow administration had given itself after its first day in office to move on implementing reform measures to strengthen governance, and to do something tangible about reducing the cost of living.
No formal announcement has been made on government measures to slash prices on essential items in the consumer’s food basket, or at the pumps.