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Written by CTV3 Publisher Friday, 03 February 2012 15:32

Politics

Today Oceana, the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation, fired off a press release questioning  the rejection of over eight thousand petition signatures by the Elections and Boundaries Department. The letter sent by the Election and Boundaries department to Oceana states and we quote, “The total number of signatures REJECTED amounted to Eight Thousand and Forty Seven (8,047) or 40% of the signatures reviewed” end quote.

But what the letter doesn’t mentioned, says Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Oceana’s Vice President, is the reason why the signatures were not accepted. So, Oceana wrote a letter to the Governor General requesting the GG to officially notify them on what basis the signatures were rejected on.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd Vice President Oceana

“I must say we are of course a bit disappointed and taken a back that they would actually say that 8000 signatures do not qualify when we have taken a lengthy process not only to go out and personally meet people and have these signs but also we vetted ourselves and paid an independent clerk to vetted for us to make sure that every person who signs exist in the database and everything, that’s why we went a letter to the Governor General to please tell us officially the bases in which these 8000 signatures are disqualified, we gave about 20,000 signatures but we said 18,000 officially because we made room that there can be errors but not such massive error, that represents almost 40% of the signatures we’ve given in but definitely we cannot se how absolutely we cannot see how that is possible.”

Matura also made mentioned that Oceana sent an official letter to the Prime Minister requesting that he be the one to call the referendum and says that dragging the issue in the political arena should not have been done.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd Vice President Oceana

“There is a section in the referendum act that is section 2 paragraph 8 which the government could have used to call a referendum on their own and they didn’t we even gave them that opportunity because Oceana wrote an official letter to the Prime Minister basically saying to him before he dissolve the National Assembly can you go to the National Assembly pass a resolution in the National Assembly that the issue of offshore drilling of such national importance that is been taken to a referendum to the people they never did that and so sadly they are playing politics with this issue but coming on to an election would have been very important for the Belizean people give the mandate to the government not for them to assume the mandate and so it is sad that such an important issue all in the political arena and try divide people along the line, all I call on the Belizean people to realize that what happen with these signature is that your right, your democratic right to vote on the issue has been taken away from you.”

Matura made it perfectly clear today that the rejections of the signatures will be fought and the Belizean People can rest assure that Ocean will keep on fighting against Offshore Drilling.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd Vice President Oceana

“So at this point we are seeking the official ground on which these signatures has been disqualified and thereafter we will choose what is the best course to go through but the Belizean public can be assure that we are not going to give up on this issue, having oil companies drilling on our reefs or near our reefs or anywhere in the vicinity of our water is a definite danger to our country and Belizeans need to understand that and have a loud voice about it regardless of any party of the nation, this is one issue that we are hoping that people realize that please regardless of the party affiliation no matter which party wins the next general election they need a mandate from the people and there should be a mandate to no offshore drilling.”

Today the Chief Elections and Boundaries Officer Josephine Tamay held a press conference in Belmopan where she mentioned that some of the signatures were rejected because they did not match that of the record card. We will bring you their side of the story in tomorrow’s newscast.

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