BELMOPAN, Belize, Mar 7, CMC -Social activist, Jeremy Enriquez, and two other Belizeans, have decided to withdraw his application for an expedited hearing regarding a case over long overdue redistricting in Belize before the March 12 general election, his attorney, Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan, has said.
The announcement by the former Trinidad and Tobago attorney general, in a letter to Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay, comes after the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) dismissed an effort by Enriquez to block the March 12, general election, saying that it was absolutely without merit.
Enriquez told reporters that his attorney had filed the last-minute special application to the CCJ because they were worried, they wouldn’t get a Court of Appeal hearing before March 12.
Political observer had said that by calling the elections on March 12, Prime Minister John Briceño had done so amid ongoing debates about the need for redistricting. The Belize Peace Movement (BPM) and other advocacy groups have been vocal about the constitutional requirement for redistricting before any new elections.
In the letter to Courtenay, who is representing the prime minister and the attorney general, Ramlogan said that his client had had decided to withdraw his application for an expedited hearing on the redistricting issue.
The application was initially filed on February 11.
“I have advised that it would be pointless to pursue the instant application for an expedited hearing of the appeal filed herein. There would be nothing urgent in the appeal to justify an order for an expedited hearing,” Ramlogan wrote on behalf of his clients, Enriquez, Rudolph Norales and Jessica Tulcey.
He said that with the general election scheduled for March 12, the appeal holds no urgency, making an expedited hearing unnecessary.
Ramlogan said that the withdrawal was intended to save time and avoid further costs for all parties involved.
“It would be pointless to pursue the instant application for an expedited hearing,” Ramlogan stated in his letter.
In the last general elections held on November 11, 2020, the then opposition PUP achieved its first national election victory since 2003, winning 26 seats, while the then incumbent United Democratic Party (UDP) suffered its worst result since 1998, winning the remaining five seats.
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