By Dylan Vernon, Real Story #7, 28 January 2024.

Few things rile Belize’s two main political parties more than being labeled PUDP – Belize’s version of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It grates red and blue nerves raw not only because being perceived as different is the backbone of the partisan game, but also because the truth stings. The petty, personal and often vicious ways the People’s United Party (PUP) and the United Democratic Party (UDP) attack each other are mostly tactics to mask the truth that not much really separates them in ideology, policies and electoral practices in post-independence Belize. Both compete largely as center-right ‘handout’ machines. Both have encouraged voters to ‘tek di money but vote dem out’. Both get voted out when the rot of corrupt ‘feeding’ swings the pendulum to the other side. The list of commonalities is long. But is the issue of constitutional reform on it?

Basically On the Same Page

At the systemic level, constitutional reform is certainly on that PUDP list. By that I don’t mean similarities on the quantity of constitutional amendment acts passed when the parties are in power. On the surface, the record shows numeric parity: of the ten constitutional amendment acts since 1981, five have come under PUP governments and five under UDP governments – even as the PUP deserves credit for establishing both major constitutional commissions since independence.… Read the rest...

By Dylan Vernon, PAST WORK #5, 22 November 2023

“[This] compelling book on the historical functioning of party politics in Belize opens with a vivid anecdote: In the closing week of the small nation’s 2008 general election, voters lined up to receive payouts of ‘housing support’ from the ruling People’s United Party (PUP), their ‘share’ of a BZ$20 million gift from the Venezuelan government; claimants threatened to vote for the opposition (the United Democratic Party, UDP) unless they received payment, while some UDP officials incited voters to ‘tek di money but vote dehn out’. … More shocking than what he saw in 2008 was his discovery that political clientelism is like a vast vine, deeply rooted, interwoven and entangled throughout the young oak of Belize’s democracy, threatening its health and very existence.”

Political Clientelism and Democracy in Belize: From My Hand to Yours

The above quote is an excerpt from a review of my recent book by Professor Matthew Restall (Pennsylvania State University) in the latest November 2023 edition of Bulletin of Latin America Research. (See full reference below). This and other book reviews in 2023 (which I share links to below), spurred me to revisit the central themes of my recent book Political Clientelism and Democracy in Belize: From My Hand to Yours, published by the University of the West Indies Press in April 2022.… Read the rest...

By Dylan Vernon, TIME COME #4, 15 November 2023)

Although there is near universal agreement that the Preamble is the cornerstone of the Constitution of Belize, some are sceptical on its practical utility. Is it purely a set of aspirational declarations? Is it obligatory and legally-binding on its own merit? Can it only be used by courts to help interpret the rest of the Constitution? Should it be left as is or should it be amended? These are some of the questions that the People’s Constitution Commission will likely consider in reviewing the Preamble and they are the focus of this Time Come post.

What Did the Framers Intend?

Let’s first set the background by exploring the intent of the framers of the Independence Constitution. During the public consultations by the Joint Select Committee (JSC) of the National Assembly on the White Paper on the Proposals of the Government of Belize on the Independence Constitution, several citizens sought clarity on what the Preamble, as drafted, would mean in practice for them in an independent Belize.

For example, in the very first public consultation in Punta Gorda, Toledo on 16 February 1981, a question from Timothy Bardalez, on whether the Constitution would help advance social welfare, prompted several interventions on the draft Preamble.… Read the rest...