By Dylan Vernon, TIME COME #20, 10 February 2025.
The Belize PEACE Movement (BPM) has been on target with its sustained education and advocacy on the re-districting issue. This is why I have not addressed it, except secondarily, in TIME COME so far: the BMP, Vision Inspired by the People, and others like Jeremy Enriquez, ‘got this’. So, this article is primarily to applaud the BPM on its tenacious re-districting campaign to highlight the constitutional failure of both major political parties to make re-districting happen. The BPM’s work paved the way last week for three citizens to take up the baton and push this matter to another legal level. But, apart from summarising the salient developments, I will discuss the re-districting problem in wider perspective as it relates to systemic causes and to considerations implied for constitutional reform.
The Equal Numbers Principle
International best practice does demonstrate that electoral democracy is most fair and participatory when there are as equal numbers of persons as possible in electoral constituencies that elect representatives to the same legislative body. As the BPM points out, international best practice for maximum variance among constituencies is between 10% to 15%. Look at this this way. If Division A has 1000 electors and Division B has 200, then those in Division A will technically (other things being equal) have five times less access to representation than those in Division B.… Read the rest...
At 11:45 pm on a cool 2025 election night, the final constituency result is in. Post-independence political history is made. It’s a clean sweep for the Blues! The PUP 31, the UDP 0. Amid the wild celebrations and the deep despair, a still energetic Jules Vasquez asks his tired panel: So, there is no Leader of the Opposition? Who will appoint the Opposition’s three senators? Who will chair the Joint Public Accounts Committee? Who will appoint Opposition members to such bodies as the Belize Advisory Council and the Elections and Boundaries Commission? With whom will the PM consult or seek concurrence when the Constitution so demands? 
I live on hill where it blows and it snows. So, I crave a place with no need for ploughs. Perhaps a warm isthmus with a nice quiet Christmas. To catch some warm breeze and escape the deep freeze. My mutt Max says, ‘let’s do Belize’. Hmmmm? But is it just what he heard from that migratory bird? That Belize now has tons of free turkeys and hams. Free turkeys and hams! Is it but a scam? The Grinch knows what to do! Trusting Max nor A.I., I will employ a good spy. Christmas in Belize? Do I go, or abort? Well, let me first read my intel report.
A curious thing happened when I applied in July 2024 to transfer my voter registration to the constituency of my current residence. As I was leaving the elections office, a woman in the waiting area demanded a copy of my receipt and proceeded to fire off personal questions. I had seen her do the same thing to other people who provided the requested information – ostensible thinking it was all official. It took me a few seconds to realise something was off. I asked her if this was an official part of the transfer process, and she answered ‘yes’ without hesitation. I asked the registering officer if this was true, and the answer was a quiet but clear ‘no’. The woman was actually a paid partisan operative, one of many in every division nationwide collecting transfer and registration data on voters. The blatant deception really ticked me off. More substantively, it reminded me of the deep-rooted fraud of illicit voter transfers that pollutes Belize’s electoral democracy every summer.