Activist Patrick Menzies told us earlier this week that he is seeking legal advice on filing a claim in the Supreme Court seeking interpretation of the constitutionality of Section 10 (1) of the Belizean Nationality Act, Chapter 161 of the Laws of Belize.
Last Thursday, February 2, a series of cases were scheduled to be heard in the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court concerning objections filed by Menzies, resident in St. Matthew’s, Cayo District, and another objector from Belmopan. The cases were filed against registered voters from Belmopan and villages within the Cayo South constituency, on three grounds: that the person being objected to was not a citizen of Belize, and that their Nationality Certificate was unconstitutional under Sections 26, 29(3) and 92 of the Constitution; that the persons objected to do not live at the addresses given, and that they have not lived at their prescribed addresses for two months as required under the Representation of the People Act.
However, the matters for Belmopan were withdrawn by the objector and Menzies’ cases were dropped after the attorney present on behalf of the Government persuaded Magistrate Adolph Lucas, Jr., that because of the constitutional matters brought up by Menzies, the matter was better suited to be heard in the Supreme Court.
(Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, listed as living at a Xunantunich Street in Belmopan, is among those names objected to in the Belmopan constituency, and later withdrawn.)
Menzies told Amandala that Section 10 (1) of the Act, he has been advised, conflicts with the Constitution on the issue of residency. The Act states that persons may register for citizenship who are of full age and sound mind; “ordinarily resident in Belize and has been so resident for a period of five years immediately preceding the date of the application, and that the applicant is and intends to continue to be ordinarily resident in Belize.
However, the Constitution, in Section 26 (1) (b), states that, as amended by Act No. 14 of 1985, any persons who have been resident “continuously” in Belize immediately preceding the date of the application can register for citizenship.
The National Assembly, by the terms of section 2, has power to make the actual laws on registration for citizenship.
Section 2 of the Constitution, since amended to exclude amendments to the Constitution, states that any other law that is inconsistent with the Constitution shall be void to the extent of the said inconsistency.
Menzies told us that he brought the applications because of the hurried and rushed nature of the citizenship process and the likelihood that many of the applicants can’t have been in-country for more than a few days at most, and would not fit the definitions in either the Act or the Constitution for citizenship, and would also be disqualified under the Representation of the People Act for not being resident for the stated length of time, two months prior to applying to register.
Objections were also heard in Orange Walk Town last Thursday on fairly simpler grounds; these were more typical cases of objection in which the petitioner alleges that the individual in question does not live at his or her given address, or is dead, or does not live in the boundaries of the division at all.