And so with that recovery effort ongoing in the west, and COVID cases breaking out countrywide, voter turnout stands to be severely affected.
But, the election must go on, and on Saturday, Prime Minister Barrow discussed the difficult situation - which leaves government with few to no choices.
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Outgoing Prime Minister
"That turnout will be affected, and that, as I said earlier, will also mean that the mandate that whoever wins will enjoy - if enjoy is the right word - will most likely be an attenuated mandate. I say this not to try to place in the Belizean mind any sense of the possible illegitimacy of the mandate, no. We will hold the elections as we normally do, in a free and fair fashion. The practical constraints to voter turn-out are what they are. So, the mandate of whoever wins will be legitimate. But, if it is a shrunken mandate, I'm saying that this makes the argument that whoever is the beneficiary of that mandate will need, in view of the turn-out, which should be - if not unprecedentedly high - are we still on. I'm not seeing the - okay - should be high because we just had a re-registration, usually you get your higher turnouts immediately after a re-registration. There is not time for people to go away, or die and not be removed from the list. But, I suspect that the contrary will occur, and we'll have indeed a depressed turnout. All I can do is to repeat that ought not to bring into question at all legitimacy of the mandate of whoever wins."
The PUP put out a release on Saturday asking for prayers for the affected, and prayers, quote, "as we carry out what is a sacred duty to our country," making too clear that the opposition has no objection to Wednesday's election.
