The press also asked the Commissioner about the election night curfew.
Last night we told you that the National Oversight Committee would be recommending that Cabinet approve an election night curfew. It's a one night only return to this particular draconian measure in the hopes that potential superspreader victory celebrations can be avoided.
And with this curfew likely to go ahead we asked the Commissioner for his views, he says that Belizeans ought not to be troubled and assured the public that, contrary to Facebook rants, the curfew is not a ploy to steal the election.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"It is not going to cause any political party to hijack the election as you can see that is some of the comments from some quarters that the curfew is going to enable the government to steal the election. Let me say that elections are conducted by public officers and for example at the polling stations we will have the presiding officers, we will the polling clerks and each political party has their respective scrutineers."
"Now when all the voting process is over then the returning officer is the one who announces the winning candidate so when we speak of a curfew during the election night from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. I say it is in no way going to hinder the election process because one the curfew is not going to affect those public officers who are a part of the election process i.e. the officer the returning officer, the scrutineers and whoever the political parties choose to be at the counting station, neither is it going to affect the candidates who are contesting the election in no way shape or form."
"And may I emphatically state that the media is a very important part of our democracy and there is no way that the curfew is going to be used to stifle the media, we believe that something as important as an election, the media needs to be out to ensure that they report accurately to their viewers as well as to act as a check and balance to ensure that there is nothing unscrupulous being done by anyone within, during the election process. What we seek to do during the curfew is to ensure that after voting is over that people can go home and await the results of the election."
"Whenever any political party crosses that threshold persons may want to come out and celebrate and they may want to do so in large numbers and so what the curfew is to ensure that people are not allowed to out in large numbers to celebrate after the results of the election has been announced and so that is the sole purpose of the curfew and nothing more."
The Election day curfew will be in place from 8:00 pm on Wednesday, November 11th. to 5:00 a.m. the following day.
