LONDON, England, April 5, 2019 — Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has deployed a Commonwealth Observer Group to observe the referendum in Belize proposed for 10 April.
The proposed referendum question is: “Do you agree that any legal claim of Guatemala against Belize relating to land and insular territories and to any maritime areas pertaining to these territories should be submitted to the International Court of Justice for final settlement and that it determine finally the boundaries of the respective territories and areas of the Parties?”
The Observer Group is led by Hubert A Ingraham, former Prime Minister of The Bahamas, and is composed of ten specialists from across the Commonwealth with backgrounds in election management, law, gender, civil society, media, and politics.
Both the Group and the Commonwealth Secretariat have taken note of the ruling by Belize’s Chief Justice on 3 April, granting a temporary injunction until the Supreme Court further deliberates on the matter, and also notes the appeal lodged by the Government to the Court of Appeal. http://secretariat.thecommonwealth.org/media/news/observer-group-arrives-belize
