Elections and Boundaries: We are ready for March 1st
Tonight political pundits across the country are strategising their next moves in the bid to contest the March municipal elections. But politics aside, there is a technical aspect to the showdown that will prove crucial to the success of the day itself…that is, the organisation of voting, the counting, and of course the accurate reporting of results. This morning I sat down with Chief Elections Officer Stuart Leslie to find out more.
Stuart Leslie, Chief Elections Officer
?Let me use this opportunity first of all to assure the Belizean public, especially the Belizean voter, that your vote is a secret ballot. Your ballot is secret. I have the full confidence that, and I am sure that the political agents will tell you we have full confidence in the system we have.?
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
With the machinery of both major political parties cranking into high gear this month, the Elections and Boundaries Department is also running on all cylinders in preparation for the March first nationwide municipal elections.
Stuart Leslie, Chief Elections Officer
?We have assembled here at the Elections and Boundaries Department, what I am calling an election management team. It comprises of the senior people in the department, somebody responsible for logistics, and the assistant administrator, the acting assistant chief elections officer, my assistant Miss Susie Castillo, and what we call our data systems manager. We?ve also invited from Ministry of Finance, because an election is a costly thing, asked for somebody from the office of the Prime Minister. The Elections and Boundaries reports directly, comes directly under the portfolio of the Prime Minister, so somebody from the Prime Minister?s financial team, and as well the Police Department.?
?Our first big event of course is the last day of registration, which is January tenth. That is to say that everybody who is registered after January the tenth would not be able to participate in this election. So for those people who are eighteen, who are Belizeans, who qualify as voters, you need to get into a registering office before the tenth of January.?
Janelle Chanona
?Stuart, now into the job less than six months, with elections less than two months away, what are your anticipations for March??
Stuart Leslie
?I do not feel so much of a challenge in terms of being able to execute and organise this election. Where the challenge is going to come in is to try and make sure that every Belizean understands first and foremost that, yes your ballot is secret, that yes, if you are registered you should go to vote. How do we use our office to be activists for the democratic process without being political? And so for me especially, I have to make sure that I maintain that fairness and with the professional people and with the civil servants behind me, we make sure that we maintain a good relationship with all involved: both political parties at the level of secretaries general and with independent candidates.?
?We follow the law. It?s there, it?s stated in a law, it?s a very comprehensive book one could say, and we have to follow it step by step by step. Everything from how you secure a ballot, to what happens on polling day, to how many feet you can stand away from the polling station, who can wear colours, who can?t; everything is in there. So basically we implement that, we follow that handbook; that is our bible.?
Janelle Chanona
?There have been a lot of questions, concerns raised about the integrity of the system itself. We?ve heard reports of how the literally buying the votes work, with sneaking ballot papers out of the election booths. What are your responses to that??
Stuart Leslie
?It really, it is to an extent ludicrous. But if the fear is out there we have to look at it. We are giving the confidence of these people who are public servants, who administrate this election, to the forty something plus people in this department that this is not a process that they need to be afraid of, people cannot tell how you vote.?
By all accounts, the gloves will be off in March as both the People?s United Party and the United Democratic Party fight for control of the nation?s seven towns and two cities. But Leslie maintains that Belize?s electoral system is tamper proof.
Stuart Leslie
?There are lots of urban legends out there about how you buy a vote and so on and I am not going to get into speculating on that because I believe that what is done on election day by the civil service is a fantastic job.?
?We continue to look at the integrity of the entire process, from who prints the ballot to the serial numbering system and every aspect. We?ve looked at it here in this office, we?ve sat down with ballot papers, we?ve raked over the coals to see how can somebody tell how somebody votes, because that?s the big controversy. I am very much aware of it; I was in the process on the other side that we can tell how somebody votes. Let me give you every assurance that this is not possible. For somebody to do this it would require a whole lot of collusion on the part of people with integrity.?
Clearly one of the reasons for Leslie?s confidence is new ballot boxes. Five hundred of the see-through containers will be set up in polling stations countrywide.
According to the latest statistics from the Elections and Boundaries Department, there are more than one hundred and thirty-three thousand registered voters in Belize…equivalent to eighty-seven percent of those persons eligible to vote.
With all transfers completed late last year, voter lists were printed in November. Today supplemental records were being sent out to the respective party secretariats.
Stuart Leslie
?Let us have fun, let us be safe. Let us continue the active and energetic debate and then come March the first we will exercise our democratic process and the people will say what they have to say then.?
Tonight News Five understands that the cost of the municipal voting in March is expected to run around two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A general election is estimated to cost around a million dollars. Those figures include technical costs as well as travel and subsistence for public officers working the election.
