Re-Registration Will Lead to New-Look Electoral Map

Josephine Tamai

The re-registration of the voters list is long overdue and the government has said that it will take place after the municipal elections and before general elections in 2020. There are currently thirty-one constituencies nationwide with some far bigger than others in voting population. In the city, Lake Independence and Port Loyola are far bigger than Fort George and Pickstock on the north side. Earlier this week when we sat with the Chief Elections Officers, Josephine Tamai, she said that the re-registration process is set to commence on July first of this year and will see all eligible Belizean voters go through the process of registering once again, despite a cleaning of the voters list every October.

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer

“In terms of the redistricting; that is an issue and we need to look at the calendar of events. Redistricting is a process that takes a little bit longer. So we are hoping that once we get a successful re-registration, we have the numbers, then we will be able to more determine the number of persons who are registered in a specific area to see how the redistricting needs to be done, if it needs to be done at that point.”

Duane Moody

“Just to clarify, the purpose of it is really…the re-registration will determine the number of electorates in a particular division and the redistricting is really to ensure that each division basically has the same amount…”

Josephine Tamai

“…as nearly as equal number of voters in there.”

Duane Moody

“..and that will be determined by who?”

Josephine Tamai

“Well it is basically the Elections and Boundaries Commission. But again, depending on the figures that you get from the re-registration, you will be able to determine which division has much more than the other. So let’s say for example, you don’t have persons coming out to do the re-registration, then it impacts on the entire redistricting. So again, when the re-registration comes around, we encourage people to come out and re-register….starting from scratch…those persons are encouraged to come out and you need to be re-registered….to vote in any election.”