Belize Prime Minister John Briceño says an estimated five million dollars (One Belize dollar=US$0.49 cents) will be required to stage a national referendum on the legislation of marijuana later this year.
While he described the funds needed as a “pittance” in comparison to the country’s move to defend its territorial borders with Guatemala, Prime Minister Briceño told reporters “We are trying to hold down the cost.”
“The cost of a referendum is not only what it will cost for the Elections and Boundaries Commission – what they will spend, but also, there has to be an information campaign so that people could truly understand what is going to happen, what is the question and inform people properly so that when they go to the polls, they can make a decision based on what they believe how they should answer the question,” Briceño said.
Earlier this week, the Belize Coalition of Churches (BCC) said it will soon be putting forward its campaign after meeting the threshold for triggering a referendum on the issue of cannabis legalization that could take place in September this year.
Under the Referendum Act, a referendum may be triggered when a petition receives the signatures of ten percent of the voting population.
Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai said the threshold to trigger the referendum had been met
“I can tell you that in terms of the number of petitions that we received; the total was 20,112 petitions. Of those petitions, a total of 18,891 or 19.7 percent of the total number of registered electors, were accepted. So, 18,891 signatures were accepted,” said Tamai.
She said as a result, she has written to Governor General Froyla Tzalam informing the head of state that the threshold has been met successfully.
Pastor Louis Wade, the church’s spokesperson for its anti-marijuana effort, said ‘we will be putting our campaign forward as soon as the governor general makes the writ and releases it, and we are confident that Belizeans know the damage that marijuana has done in their community and in their household.
The House of Representatives on Friday debated the introduction of a supplementary allocation to cover the cost of the upcoming cannabis referendum.
Prime Minister Briceño said his administration has to find the five million dollars that it didn’t budget for in its recent national budget.
He said that the government, particularly, the Minister of New Growth Industries Kareem Musa, did extensive consultations with the public on the marijuana issue.
Asked by reporters whether the referendum necessary at this time, Prime Minister Briceño replied saying “honestly, I was one of them that saying maybe we should have the referendum and get it over with earlier, but when they told me it was going to cost as much as five million dollars, we said it’s really too much.
CMC/
