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Meanwhile, Union Senator Glenfield Dennison is calling for action on campaign-finance reform, arguing that Belize’s political system remains vulnerable to wealthy individuals and investors who finance election campaigns in exchange for influence. Senator Dennison said the absence of clear rules allows donors to secretly contribute large sums of money to political parties and candidates. He warned that foreign and private interests could use that financial support to influence national policies and decisions, declaring that Belize’s former colonial masters are now returning in the form of investors. He says the continued delay leaves political parties free to accept undisclosed funding and increases the risk of elected officials becoming accountable to powerful financiers instead of the Belizean people.
Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator: “There’s a very important saying. If we messed up our independence, our colonizers will come back in the form of investors. We are 45 years old as a nation. We have messed up, baved on this thing called independence and the evidence of that is that we are now being governed by people calling themselves investors. I won’t call any names. But the reason those people can run our country is because they control the campaign finance. Because when the election is over and you see they go to Governor General’s house to swear in, it’s not them running the country you know ? It’s the people who financed their campaign to get them there. Let us be real. So when you see state actors were so blinded, when you see them so blinded about this deal and how great this deal is all you have to ask is “who will benefit from this deal.” to know who is the real people who run this country. The puppet masters. A draft of that bill has existed for how many years president ? Plenty. We’re calling for that from about 2012, from long. Chamber has one. We want it to turn into law because we’re tired of people representing us who can’t represent us because their personal interest requires that they represent the investors. This is just slavery by another name you know ?”
Campaign-finance reform is intended to regulate how political parties and candidates collect and spend money during an election. It would require politicians to disclose who is financing their campaigns, establish limits on donations and campaign spending and prevent anonymous or prohibited contributions. Belize currently has no comprehensive law regulating political donations, financial reporting or the public disclosure of campaign spending. While the Representation of the People Act deals with matters such as bribery and other election offences, it does not provide a complete system for tracking the money flowing into political campaigns. History will show that the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) had prepared a draft Representation of the People Amendment Bill in 2023. Government later announced that the Good Governance Unit was reviewing the Chamber’s proposal and studying campaign-finance laws used elsewhere in the Caribbean. However, no legislation has been taken through the National Assembly. A recent study by the Belize Policy Research Institute also recommended the registration and regulation of political parties, limits or bans on certain private contributions, controls on campaign spending, mandatory financial disclosures and the creation of an independent body to oversee political financing.
English (US) ·