Chief Elections Officer reassures voters
There has never been a Belizean election where at least somebody didn’t grumble that the outcome was rigged. And while, unlike 1979, no one is alleging the use of disappearing ink, there have been sharp opinions expressed, particularly on the morning call-in radio shows. With nomination day set for Monday, we figured it was time to let the Chief Elections Officer set the record straight.
Myrtle Palacio, Chief Elections Officer
“We’ve seen the ads, we’ve seen the campaigning, but this is official, it makes it official that you are a candidate getting ready for March fifth.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
As in previous elections, nomination day has always been a colourful affair, complete with flags, fanfare and followers… And when the noise dies down the real work begins. That very evening the Elections and Boundaries Department heads to Belmopan to print sample ballots.
Myrtle Palacio
“The sample papers are free and we distribute those to political parties and independent candidates, and they take that out to the streets to be able to be use that as part of voter education as well. We would like to come out with the sample ballots within at least forty-eight hours. There’s another technicality to it, in that the candidate under the law has the right to assign a colour to the block to identify the candidate.”
And come March fifth, voters in urban areas will be asked to elect both representatives and municipal council members on the same day. To reduce the possibility of confusion, the Election and Boundaries Department has launched an intensive education campaign.
Myrtle Palacio
“People are assured that the process is still the same. The mischievousness out there was that, well, how many ballot papers? And how we wah do two elections? And there are also people also who are saying, Belizean-Americans, we’re used to this. This is so much cheaper in doing it this way. And people you know have calmed down.”
But this week, excitement peaked after rumours emerged that the ballot papers could be used to identify voters.
Janelle Chanona
“No matter how people might perceive you when you’re walking in, at the end of the day, you can’t be identified by your ballot right?”
Myrtle Palacio
“No. That is utter nonsense. There are stakeholders with us that are candidates and their agents, and we have to account to them and the public for those ballots that we receive, and we can do that only by the number system. So far our elections are free and fair, nobody is identified by a ballot. What concerns me with mischievousness, and it’s mischievousness because there’s no basis, is that maybe there are one or two of our young voters who may be scared away for being identified by a ballot. Now that mischievousness is undermining our democracy.”
But traditionally, voter turnout in Belize has always been high. In 1998, we set a record in our young political history with just over ninety percent of registered voters entering the ballot booth. And when the polls close at 6:00 p.m. sharp on March fifth, a team of more than two thousand, one hundred public officers will start counting.
Myrtle Palacio
“I don’t wish to put a time line on it. As you know our, counting here is longer than anywhere else because we count at a counting station. We count all our boxes, Belize City we are talking about thirty-three thousand voters as a municipality. And you’re talking about two thousand to seven thousand in terms of an electoral district.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be any different than any other election, and town may come before general. The call is going to be made as soon as the returning officer is complete. What we’re doing across the board is using the same counting method across the board, which we hope will shorten the process of counting.”
Come Nomination Day on Monday, all candidates must make a financial deposit. Prospective area representatives put down two hundred dollars, City Council candidates pay fifty dollars and town board aspirants pay twenty-five. After the elections, the deposits are returned, provided the candidate receives at least ten percent of the votes.