How Do You Qualify to Run for Village Council?

There are also criteria that interested candidates must meet in order to become eligible to run for village council. Chief Elections Officer Tamai explains what one needs to do in order to qualify for the vote.

Josephine Tamai

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer

“For persons who want to contest in a certain village, those persons turn up to the nomination stations for them to get nominated. I will get into the qualifications for persons who want to be nominated or who want to contest these elections. You will know that there was no change made in the criteria for those persons who will contest elections.  So those persons must be: one, Belizean. Two: they must be eighteen years old, and three: they must reside in that village or community for a period of one year, not less than one year preceding the date of the election. So that is the criteria for persons who want to contest. Those persons who want to contest also need to have two persons to nominate them and those two persons must be two persons whose names are on the voters list for that specific village or community. So your name must be on the voters list for you to nominate somebody and for you to second that nomination. The person who is contesting, the name of that person does not need to be on the voters list, but they must meet the three criteria.”