During Wednesday's elections, police officers will be among the busiest public servants on duty. That's because they have to maintain law and order at all the polling stations countrywide. Then, they have to enforce quarantine regulations against excited political supporters who may "forget" that it is illegal to hold gatherings bigger than 10 people. Then, they have to enforce an election day curfew, which will start on Wednesday night at 8 p.m.
Here's what the commissioner had to say about their many roles for election day:
Chester Williams, Police Commissioner
"One of the greatest tasks of police is to ensure that the election process goes through peacefully and this year is going to be no different. The only difference with this year is that we are having an election in a time of a pandemic during which we still have a quarantine regulation that needs to be enforced with a view to ensure that we protect our citizenry from contracting the COVID19 virus during this time and so with that said what I did this morning was to meet with my commanders from across the country and discuss with them what is expected during the election process and as you would know the police will be at the different polling stations and counting stations. At the polling stations the police officers are just there to enforce law and order and they act on the directive of the presiding officer at the counting stations police again will be there to ensure that law and order prevails and they act on the instructions of the returning officer. But separate and apart from being engaged in the election process, we do have law and order still as a primary function of the police in terms of ensuring that people do not use the opportunity to commit crime particularly in Belize City where you have the gang infested areas and so there is a need for us to maintain our presence in the gang ridden areas of Belize City and in other parts of the country all with a view to ensure that persons who are going to the different polling stations to cast their votes can do so without being targeted by rivalling gangs or groups so that is going to continue. We also have the fact that we are going to have a curfew on election night and again the police will enforce the curfew regulation but at the same time as I have said before that there are certain categories of persons who must be allowed to move around during the curfew hours and so we are looking at those persons who are involved in the election process, the public officers they will be allowed to move around, you have the observers, we have a number of observers in the country I think somewhere I think around 60 observers from different parts of the world who are here to witness our election process, they too will be allowed to move around, we also have the candidates who are contesting the elections and maybe an agent or two of theirs who may need to act on their behalf to check on the situations at different counting stations during the curfew hours, they too will be allowed to move around and then we have the media again as I have said before the media is very integral in our democracy, they form part of our check and balance in the system and so they too will be allowed to move around."
The election-day curfew will end at 5 a.m. on Thursday morning.
