Social Studies - Pages 143 to 145

Electoral and Boundaries Commission

Some of the functions of this department are to:

• Urge citizens to ensure their names and addresses are

printed correctly in voters’ list.

• Report inaccuracies to registration office.

• Urge citizens 18+ years to register to vote.

Important People in Parliament

In Belize, our Parliament is referred to as The National Assembly. The National

Assembly consists of three bodies: The Governor-General, the Senate and the

House of Representatives. The National Assembly of Belize is bicameral, meaning

it consists of two houses – the Senate (Upper House) and the House of Representatives (Lower House). These

members are important, including the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker of The

House, Ministers and Backbenchers (elected members with no ministerial posts).

 Proportional Representation Vs First-past-the-post System

Proportional Representation
This is a system in which the whole country is viewed as a single constituency.
Any number of political parties can contest the election. Seats in the legislature
are then allocated in proportion to the percentage of votes won by each party.

Benefits:
• Gerrymandering is prevented
• Each representative represents the whole
country and not just a specific area
• Fewer votes are ‘wasted’ as more people’s
preferences are taken into account.
Disadvantages
• Allows the existence of small groups
• Strong possibility of coalition governments
because of no clear majority party.
• The coalition governments that PR tends to
produce are often weak and indecisive,
First-past-the-post System

Allows the candidate who obtains the most votes in a

constituency to be declared the winner, and the party that wins
most of the seats above the minimum required, to be declared
the winner of elections.

Belize has two stronger political parties so at the moment it’s

basically the majority of the two.

Benefits
• Closer relationship between representative
and constituents
• More awareness of the needs of
constituencies
• Representatives have a responsibility to
the constituents who elected them
Disadvantages
• Possibility of gerrymandering
• Neglect of opposition constituencies
• A party with minority support can form
the government (In the case where there
are much more political parties than in
Belize).