View source for 2008 Belizean constitutional referendum

{{infobox referendum
|date={{start date|2008|02|07|df=y}}
|country=Belize
|title=Should the [[Senate of Belize]] be elected?
|yes=45,057
|no=26,793
|invalid=1,363
|electorate=156,993	
|outcome=Proposal not implemented due to low voter turnout.
}}{{Politics of Belize}}

A constitutional referendum, the nation's first, was held in [[Belize]] on 7 February 2008, coinciding with the [[2008 Belizean legislative election|2008 general elections]].

The question asked was: "Should the [[Senate of Belize]] be elected?"

While approved by 61% of voters with a 46% turnout, the referendum was only consultative, and the government chose not to implement the result, considering the low turnout.

== Background ==
{{Main|Senate of Belize}}
Ever since independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, Belize has had its upper house appointed. Currently, there are 12 senators and a President.

An elected Senate, according to its proponents, would return the decision over control of the nation's resources and development to the Belizean people.

== Discussion ==
Earlier in the year, Prime Minister [[Said Musa]] had given tacit support to the idea of an elected Senate, and eventually brought up the matter in session of the House of Representatives on December 19, 2007.

Musa introduced a bill to allow for a referendum, to be held in 2008 likely alongside the general elections, to determine Belizeans' thoughts on the issue. The Opposition, led by [[Dean Barrow]], argued against going to a referendum on the basis that Belizeans had not been given enough time for discussion of the issue and charged that the governing [[People's United Party]] was trying to hijack the issue to gain votes at the general elections due in the first half of 2008. The PUP countered that the opposition [[United Democratic Party (Belize)|United Democratic Party]] were on "the wrong side of history".

== Announcement of referendum and reaction ==
[[Prime Minister of Belize]] [[Said Musa]], on Monday January 7, 2008, announced that he had asked the Governor General, Sir [[Colville Young]], to issue a writ of referendum to be held the same day as the general election.<ref>http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=19955{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} News 5, January 7, 2008</ref> There is precedent for multiple voting in Belize: the [[2003 Belizean legislative election|2003 elections for general]] and [[2003 Belizean municipal election|municipal]] were held on the same day. In anticipation of the announcement the PUP had released ads condemning the UDP position and encouraging Belizeans to vote for them as well as to vote in favour of an elected Senate, linking the two together. The PUP released its proposal for an elected Senate on January 17.<ref>http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=20038{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} News 5, January 17, 2008</ref>

The Opposition [[United Democratic Party (Belize)|UDP]] announced on January 8 that it had asked its supporters to either boycott the poll or vote "no".<ref>http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=19964{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. News 5, January 8, 2008</ref> It trumpeted its alternate plan as a solution. Party leader Barrow amended the position later on by simply asking supporters to vote "no."

Reaction from the third parties was mixed. Even as many welcome the referendum, they are cautious about mixing it with the general election. Senator Godwin Hulse, Kevin Herrera and Henry Gordon of SPEAR have presented an alternate plan for the elected Senate as part of a list of reforms, to widespread discussion.<ref>http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=19974{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} News 5, January 8, 2008</ref>

== Procedure ==
The referendum was held to the same procedures as a general election. All registered voters over 18 were eligible to participate. Separate places in the polling stations were provided for the referendum.

The voting for the referendum began at 7:00 AM CST (1300 UTC) on election day and finished at 6:00 PM CST (0000 UTC Friday). Counting of votes began at the various counting stations beginning after the counting of votes for the general elections and continuing until a simple majority was reached which declared support or dissent for the question.

== Results ==
[[Image:Belize_National_Referendum_2008_-_Results_by_Constituency.svg|thumb|right|251px|Map of the referendum results by constituency, showing where the majority voted yes (shaded in green), and where the majority voted no (shaded in red).]]

The referendum passed with over 61 percent of the vote nationwide and won in 30 out of 31 [[Constituencies of Belize|constituencies]]. Only the [[Queen's Square (Belize House constituency)|Queen's Square]] constituency in [[Belize City]] voted against it.<ref name="08refer">[http://www.elections.gov.bz/modules/wfdownloads/visit.php?cid=86&lid=214 Referendum Results 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305034338/http://www.elections.gov.bz/modules/wfdownloads/visit.php?cid=86&lid=214 |date=2016-03-05 }}, [[Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission]]. (accessed 26 November 2014)</ref>
{{Referendum
| yes        = 45,057
| yespct     = 62.71
| no         = 26,793
| nopct      = 37.29
| valid      = 71,850
| validpct   = 98.14
| invalid    = 1,363
| invalidpct = 1.86
| total      = 73,213
| turnoutpct = 46.63
| electorate = 156,993
| source = [http://www.elections.gov.bz/modules/wfdownloads/visit.php?cid=86&lid=214 BEBC], [https://sudd.ch/event.php?lang=fr&id=bz012008 Direct Democracy]
}}

The 73,213 total votes and 46.6% turnout in the referendum was substantially lower than the 121,168 total votes and 77.2% turnout in the simultaneous general election. The newly elected UDP government had previously opposed the referendum and decided not to implement the reform.   

===By district===

{|class="wikitable sortable" style=text-align:right
!rowspan=2|Division
!rowspan=2|District
!colspan=2|For
!colspan=2|Against
!colspan=2|Invalid/<br>blank
!rowspan=2|Total<br>votes
!rowspan=2|Registered
!rowspan=2|Turnout<br>(%)
|-
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Freetown (Belize House constituency)|Freetown]]||'''1,415'''||'''64.23'''||732||33.23||56||2.54||3,687||2,203||59.75
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Caribbean Shores]]||'''1,354'''||'''54.25'''||1,142||45.75||0||0.00||4,564||2,496||54.69
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Pickstock (Belize House constituency)|Pickstock]]||'''1,005'''||'''60.36'''||618||37.12||42||2.52||3,294||1,665||50.55
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Fort George (Belize House constituency)|Fort George]]||'''1,393'''||'''71.95'''||503||25.98||40||2.07||3,195||1,936||60.59
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Albert (Belize House constituency)|Albert]]||'''1,042'''||'''67.18'''||477||30.75||32||2.06||3,242||1,551||47.84
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Queen's Square (Belize House constituency)|Queen's Square]]||699||47.29||'''779'''||'''52.71'''||0||0.00||3,977||1,478||37.16
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Mesopotamia (Belize House constituency)|Mesopotamia]]||'''619'''||'''51.20'''||565||46.73||25||2.07||3,255||1,209||37.14
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Lake Independence (Belize House constituency)|Lake Independence]]||'''1,595'''||'''61.89'''||919||35.66||63||2.44||5,155||2,577||49.99
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Collet (Belize House constituency)|Collet]]||'''1,005'''||'''61.96'''||591||36.44||26||1.60||3,890||1,622||41.70
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Port Loyola]]||'''703'''||'''52.74'''||597||44.79||33||2.48||4,106||1,333||32.46
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Belize Rural North]]||'''1,349'''||'''51.21'''||1,261||47.87||24||0.91||4,879||2,634||53.99
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Belize Rural Central]]||'''1,500'''||'''67.54'''||706||31.79||15||0.68||4,879||2,221||45.52
|-
|align=left|[[Belize District|Belize]]||align=left|[[Belize Rural South]]||'''1,314'''||'''68.37'''||579||30.12||29||1.51||5,470||1,922||35.14
|-
|align=left|[[Corozal District|Corozal]]||align=left|[[Corozal Bay (Belize House constituency)|Corozal Bay]]||'''1,185'''||'''71.09'''||470||28.19||12||0.72||5,352||1,667||31.15
|-
|align=left|[[Corozal District|Corozal]]||align=left|[[Corozal North]]||'''1,847'''||'''67.29'''||832||30.31||66||2.40||5,432||2,745||50.53
|-
|align=left|[[Corozal District|Corozal]]||align=left|[[Corozal South East]]||'''2,367'''||'''69.29'''||1,002||29.33||47||1.38||5,597||3,416||61.03
|-
|align=left|[[Corozal District|Corozal]]||align=left|[[Corozal South West]]||'''1,484'''||'''84.32'''||260||14.77||16||0.91||5,170||1,760||34.04
|-
|align=left|[[Orange Walk District|Orange Walk]]||align=left|[[Orange Walk Central]]||'''2,323'''||'''60.26'''||1,490||38.65||42||1.09||5,982||3,855||64.44
|-
|align=left|[[Orange Walk District|Orange Walk]]||align=left|[[Orange Walk North]]||'''1,317'''||'''70.47'''||523||27.98||29||1.55||6,365||1,869||29.36
|-
|align=left|[[Orange Walk District|Orange Walk]]||align=left|[[Orange Walk East]]||'''1,983'''||'''60.02'''||1,271||38.47||50||1.51||5,767||3,304||57.29
|-
|align=left|[[Orange Walk District|Orange Walk]]||align=left|[[Orange Walk South]]||'''1,852'''||'''74.80'''||565||22.82||59||2.38||5,989||2,476||41.34
|-
|align=left|[[Cayo District|Cayo]]||align=left|[[Cayo North]]||'''1,504'''||'''55.42'''||1,168||43.04||42||1.55||5,213||2,714||52.06
|-
|align=left|[[Cayo District|Cayo]]||align=left|[[Cayo Central]]||'''1,624'''||'''51.65'''||1,424||45.29||96||3.05||6,316||3,144||49.78
|-
|align=left|[[Cayo District|Cayo]]||align=left|[[Cayo West]]||'''1,866'''||'''69.89'''||729||27.30||75||2.81||5,621||2,670||47.50
|-
|align=left|[[Cayo District|Cayo]]||align=left|[[Cayo South]]||'''1,466'''||'''59.86'''||889||36.30||94||3.84||5,871||2,449||41.71
|-
|align=left|[[Cayo District|Cayo]]||align=left|[[Cayo North East]]||'''1,513'''||'''53.71'''||1,207||42.85||97||3.44||5,363||2,817||52.53
|-
|align=left|[[Cayo District|Cayo]]||align=left|[[Belmopan (Belize House constituency)|Belmopan]]||'''1,579'''||'''58.79'''||1,051||39.13||56||2.08||6,060||2,686||44.32
|-
|align=left|[[Stann Creek District|Stann Creek]]||align=left|[[Dangriga (Belize House constituency)|Dangriga]]||'''1,421'''||'''53.08'''||1,233||46.06||23||0.86||5,363||2,677||49.92
|-
|align=left|[[Stann Creek District|Stann Creek]]||align=left|[[Stann Creek West]]||'''2,382'''||'''58.23'''||1,615||39.48||94||2.30||7,085||4,091||57.74
|-
|align=left|[[Toledo District|Toledo]]||align=left|[[Toledo East]]||'''1,423'''||'''70.24'''||603||29.76||0||0.00||5,773||2,026||35.09
|-
|align=left|[[Toledo District|Toledo]]||align=left|[[Toledo West]]||'''928'''||'''76.57'''||260||21.45||24||1.98||5,608||1,212||21.61

|}
'''Source:''' Belize Elections and Boundaries Commission <ref name="08refer"></ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Belizean elections}}

[[Category:2008 referendums]]
[[Category:2008 in Belize|Constitutional referendum]]
[[Category:Referendums in Belize|2008 constitutional referendum]]
[[Category:Constitutional referendums]]