From losing jobs to losing the right to vote - with elections less than two weeks away, almost 1,200 people are at risk of not being able to exercise that right. That is the number of COVID-19 cases that are currently active and as you've heard the Prime Minister say, positive patients will just have to sit this one out.
Today, we asked the new party leader if they really exhausted all other options before taking away the rights of the patients.
Patrick Faber, UDP Party Leader
"The decision was made. When the prime minister and the NOC announced it that was the decision, but let's backtrack and look at that situation for a while - how is it that these people would vote? You would then make a list of all the people who are Covid positive and exposed it to all the public servants and everybody out there who of course would have to participate in the process of having them vote by proxy? Is this not the same thing that Dr. Manzanero and others championed the other day that these voters or that these individuals needed the confidence of the healthcare system to not exposed them? So, you ae saying that in order for them to vote they have to declare that they have Covid and put themselves on a list to be given a proxy. That won't work."
"All who have said they ought to be given the right to vote have not given any concrete possibility in my view. The onus is on the government to ensure that the vast majority of our citizens are safe. What if it were tuberculosis or something that is highly contagious? Government is given the right and it is perfectly legal to keep separate and quarantine those who have infectious diseases and the laws right now permit that to happen. If you are a Covid positive patient, the law right now says that you ought to be confined and that you cannot mix with the regular folks."
Reporter
"No other best practices around the region were looked at or exposed?"
Patrick Faber, UDP Party Leader
"You are a journalist. You research and I am have not found any to be honest. The NOC has not found any. They have listened and they have looked and searched far and wide to see what could be done. But it is not only a matter of that. It is a matter of deciding what is best for Belizeans also given the current situation in our climate. We have advised people time and time again, I think all Belizeans will accept that the biggest culprit in terms of the spread of Covid19 for us are our own bad practices and so the decision has to be made in that context as well."
If elections were held today - more than 500 females and 600 males - would be at risk of being disenfranchised.
