Belmopan, Belize 5 August (BelizeBlog.com) The ruling United Democratic Party Government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow has opened a can of worms in an attempt to amend the Belize Constitution to allow dual citizens to run for political office.
The move has created a firestorm of opposition within Belize and a bellicose debate as to the rational for this action, Many Belizeans believe it is an attempt to allow non-resident Belizean-Americans who form a strong plank of supporters of the U.D.P., to run for office.
Prominent Belize Activist and University of Belize Founding Lecturer Sylvana Woods summed up this debate in the following essay:
listened to the tabling of a Bill to amend the Constitution to allow
for persons with dual citizenship, one of them being Belizean, to be
allowed to serve in the House of Representatives or Cabinet.
intellectualize this to be to the detriment of our sense of identity as
Belizeans, our allegiance to Belize, our integrity as a nation, and an
insult to the average citizen, citizens in whom one would hope the
Government of Belize would do all it could to ensure policies and
practices never compromise the integrity of being Belizean.
“I object to the proposed amendment
and strongly urge the Government of Belize to rethink this devastating
blow to nationhood. Below, I detail four concrete reasons why I
strongly renounce such an amendment:
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