The Elections and Boundaries department is geared up for next week's Wednesday's referendum on Caye Caulker. But, unlike almost every other time Belizeans go to the polls - the PUDP and their armies of scrutineers will not be active. So, it's a different kind of poll.
We spoke with the Chief Elections Officer this morning Via Zoom about what people the fifteen hundred or so eligible voters on Caye Caulker can expect when they go to vote. She walked us through that process Jomarie lanza has this story.
The writ was issued on the 28th of August for the referendum on Caye Caulker, and preparations have since been underway for the elections and boundaries commission. It's the 2nd referendum being overseen by Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai, the last one was for the entire country for Belize, and this one will be only Caye Caulker exclusively. She says the process isn't much different except they are doing one thing differently since it is a non-partisan event.
Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"We also made sure that the appointments of officers were being done: the returning officer, the election clerk we have the presiding officers the poll clerks, information clerks and those persons who also assist in the counting as well and so the appointment of those officers were done we arranged for the training of those officers and again those trainings have been completed and so we are well on our way in terms of the preparations. One of the things that I will say has been done we know referendums are not something that happens a lot it Belize it is not the first one it is the first of this kind I will say, but for any election we know that you have the political agents who are inside those polling stations to observe what is happening. In this case because we know that we do not have the political parties the elections and boundaries commission decided to invite monitors because in terms of transparency and accountability purposes you would not want as an electoral management body to conduct an election or referendum and then you get all the complaints about so many things happening because nobody was there to observe and so to avoid that was the commission did was to extend and invitation to persons to participate."
These persons are representatives from organizations that sit within the National Assembly, not the political parties but representatives from the Belize Network of NGO's, the NTUCB and civil society steering committee and the Belize Council of Churches to name a few. These monitors will serve as scrutineers to see what is happening inside.
Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"In terms of the polling stations and counting stations. We will have approximately 18 officers right because it is only 3 polling stations that we will be having, we have a total number of 1454 registered electors for Caye caulker village. And so it is basically 3 polling stations we have and the polling station and counting station will be at the Caye Caulker Roman Catholic school and so we have approximately 18 persons, 18 officers who are appointed to work for the referendum day. In terms of the police officers I do not have a figure but what I know is that the police will have other persons from other areas because we know persons are going into Caye Caulker on that day so they will be having adequate number of police officers on the island for that day so they have their logistics that they are doing and whenever we have our meetings the police is always there so they are aware of exactly what is happening."
Because it is only a small number of registered voters, Tamai says that she does not anticipate the counting to take long, and she will be to one to announce the results, not the returning officer.
Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"The counting won't take long because the stations, nobody will have more than 500 votes to count in each of those stations and so we are anticipating that by 10:00 we should have the official results. One of the things I will say which is slightly different from the general election, because for a general election we know that the returning officer normally announces the results of the election, but in this case for the referendum the returning officer is not to announce the results. The law states that the returning officer must certify to the chief elections officer like the total number of ballots cast the number of spoiled ballot papers, the ballot papers used how many counted for yes, how many counted for no how many for No and how many rejected and then the Chief Elections officer will issue a certificate stating the results of the referendum."
The Budget for the referendum is $172,000.
And the Catholic Church has joined the evangelicals in urging a no vote. A release from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belize City-Belmopan says that Belize cannot afford to legalize marijuana and says that it will harm youths, damage families, threaten health and undermine tourism - among other vices.
