Belize PM Says COVID Positive Persons Will Not Be Allowed To Vote In General Election

By: Admin

Image caption: Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow (contributed photo)

Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, says voters who have been required to be in self-isolation or have tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19) ahead of the November 11 general elections, will not be allowed to vote.

“It can’t be permitted. If you are COVID positive, you are supposed to be in quarantine either at a government facility or at your own home. There’s no way we can get around that restriction which is a legal one, a mandatory one," Barrow said.

He added: “And If we were to try to change the law to make arrangements to accommodate COVID positive persons who wish to vote, not only would it be I think, an extremely difficult logistical exercise, I suspect that the fears of those that are not positive, but who already have reservations or perhaps in two minds of whether they will exercise their franchise, those fears would become even more pronounced.”

The Elections and Boundaries Department had initially indicated that all persons who show up at the respective polling stations will be allowed to cast their ballot.

The main opposition People’s United party (PUP) says it will be taking a position on that decision.

Section Five of Chapter Nine of the Representation of the People’s Act lists the qualifications that allow persons to vote in the elections.  These include that the person must be a Belizean, a Commonwealth citizen residing in Belize for 12 months or more, must be 18-years and over.  The Act also lists who is disqualified, but is silent about any infectious diseases.

Belize is the latest Caribbean country to be holding a general election during the COVID-19 pandemic, following St. Kitts-Nevis, Suriname, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. St. Vincent and the Grenadines will hold its general election on November 5.

Prime Minister Barrow, who is stepping down from active politics, told reporters that while it is extremely regrettable “that if you are COVID positive, in effect you are not able to exercise your franchise, we don’t see that it can be otherwise."

“It’s already a hugely complicated, nightmarish system to administer, the proxy system which currently exists in terms of public officers, in terms of the security forces and their needing to vote by proxy.  I don’t see trying to in fact extend that to COVID positive people.  How do you verify? That is completely out of the question.  Now I understand the argument about the constitutional rights but remember no constitutional right is absolute,” Barrow told reporters.

Meanwhile, Barrow said that a negative COVID-19 test result presented upon arrival or determined following a rapid test at the Philip Goldson International Airport (PGIA) will now free visitors and returning Belizeans from having to quarantine for a 10-day period.

Barrow said that the government has realised that the mounting number of persons affected by the disease locally is disproportionate to the number of persons arriving with negative results that are still required to self-isolate.

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