The Government of Belize announced today that it has decided to strike a compromise on the controversial Belize Constitution (Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2011, to make changes which would allay public concerns over certain features of the bill—particularly sections that were proposed to outrightly declare a bar on court challenges to constitutional amendments passed without procedural flaws.
The proposed amendment has been subject to fierce and unprecedented public debate, while national consultations led by Parliament are underway.
The most controversial feature of the Bill seeks to put the acquisitions and utilities themselves beyond further court challenge by amending the Constitution to limit the judiciary’s powers to hear challenges on this and future amendments to the Constitution. This has raised the public’s fears of Parliament stripping the powers of the Judiciary in Belize’s tri-partite government system.
At the first public consultation on the Bill, held in Belize City on August 10, 2011, many speakers expressed support for the nationalization of the public utilities, but questioned the purpose of the amendment to Section 69, which has been deemed in legal quarters to oust the court’s jurisdiction to probe the substance of future constitutional changes.
At the consultation, the leading church organizations in Belize also expressed concerns about the proposed provisions that they said would declare a bar on certain court challenges. The Belize Council of Churches, led by its President, Canon Leroy Flowers of the Anglican Diocese of Belize, and the Association of Evangelical Churches, presided over by Reverend Eugene Crawford, have spoken out in particular against the court challenge provisions.
Today, the two church associations jointly announced the breakthrough, saying, via a press release published on page 18 of this issue of Amandala, that Government had agreed to delete those portions of the bill that appear to bar court challenges, specifically portions of the new subsection of Section 69 and new subsections of Section 145.
Based on Government’s decision, the churches say, they now support the amendment and call for the “remainder of the consultation process to be held in a civil and respectful manner.”
Canon Flowers told Amandala in a telephone interview this evening that the language of the Bill, as it stood prior to their meeting with the Prime Minister and members of the Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee, which is in charge of public consultation and deliberation on the bill, “frightened” his and Pastor Crawford’s organization, and he pointed out that while GOB “has the right to make laws, it is the right of all citizens to challenge that law.” He added that the churches did not wish to “pick a fight” with Government over the proposed legislation.
Flowers reiterated to us that their support for nationalization was “never in doubt.” What was, he said, was the issue of stopping court challenges of Constitutional amendments and what that would mean for Belize’s democracy: “If our democracy is to be vibrant and all-evolving, then the courts must be accessible to all,” he explained.
The Prime Minister told us tonight that he expects that, apart from those “on the payroll” of Lord Ashcroft, the majority of those who expressed reservations about the amendment when it included the now deleted provisions, will now come onboard.
Officially, the changes must be formally recommended by the Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee, when the Bill is taken back to the entire House for passage, but at the public consultations, the public will be informed of the specific provisions deleted from the Bill, which will no longer be under consideration. (See Government’s press release on page 6 of this issue.)
Prime Minister Barrow reiterated the Government’s position that the courts cannot hear challenges to the substance of a properly passed Constitutional amendment and eventually strike it down—the courts can only make judgments on whether such an amendment is properly passed, according to the law, because a properly passed amendment becomes part of the Constitution, he said.
As he put it: “The courts cannot say that the Constitution is unconstitutional.”
According to the Prime Minister, the removed sections “make no practical difference to the amendment,” except for allowing those in opposition—and particularly the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP)—to “create fear” by suggesting that Government was attempting to take the rights of ordinary citizens to seek judicial redress.
By acceding to the churches, said Barrow, Government recognizes the church’s position as “moral authority,” and as a social partner in the country’s affairs, and reassures the general public that it has nothing to fear now that the offending language has been removed.
For those such as the Bar Association and the PUP, who would wish the Government to go further and admit that the court does have the power of review of Constitutional amendments, said Barrow, that is “impossible to achieve and a contradiction of itself,” and they would not succeed in pushing it further.
Contrary to a prior declaration that the Court of Appeal ruling overturning the 2009 nationalization would be challenged at the Caribbean Court of Justice, the Prime Minister confirmed that GOB will not appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal, stating that he has confidence that the 2011 Act will be enshrined in the Constitution via the 9th Amendment and cannot be defeated.
Introduced in the National Assembly exactly one month ago, July 22, the Belize Constitution (Ninth Amendment) Bill has as its primary feature the introduction of permanent Governmental control over public utility providers: Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), nationalized just a few days prior, amid concerns over its ability to pay its bills; Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL), nationalized in 2009 and again prior to the introduction of the Bill in a protracted dispute with those acting for and on behalf of former majority shareholder companies controlled by British businessman Lord Michael Ashcroft; and Belize Water Services Limited (BWS), returned to Belizean control several years ago after disputes with a foreign investor, Cascal.
Following its agreement with the churches, Government said in today’s press release that “public disquiet over the Bill’s purpose and effect” should be ended with the removals, while maintaining that the altered Bill “retained all the essential provisions. Therefore, it would still guarantee the impregnability of the utilities’ nationalization.”
In gaining the support of the two organizations, Government points out, it had assured them both of the objective of the Amendment—the entrenchment of Government control over the utilities—and of its stance that this is “in the national interest and a fundamental and proper expression of Belizean sovereignty.”
Public consultations are to continue this Wednesday in Corozal, ensuing in other parts of Belize for the next 10 weeks. GOB continues to call on the people of Belize for their support.
“What do you think the Barrow administration should do with the proposed 9th Amendment to the Belize Constitution, given the stated public concerns about it?” Amandala asked in its online poll last week.
The final results are as follows: The majority of respondents (43.65%) indicated that the Bill should be withdrawn altogether, with another quarter (25.79%) suggesting alterations to address the main public concerns; 16% say it should be put to a referendum, while just under 14% say it should be passed as is, without any alterations.