And now, two decades later, Sahar Vasquez went back into the streets to see how people feel about re-registration today. We found a lot less suspicion and negativity. Call it a more educated electorate, or maybe it's a less unpopular government, or maybe because it's not a year from a general election - but folks who Sahar Vasquez spoke to, seemed pretty ok with the process:...
Interviewee 1
"Well it will take time. They should have left it how it was and you do that all over it will take a lot of time."
Sahar Vasquez, reporter
"So you are still going to re-register though?"
Interviewee 1
"Yea I will do it because they want to see who still lives in the area."
Interviewee 2
"It does not matter how I feel because of no matter how I feel you still have to do it. If you want to partake in the voting process."
"I think I will do it when it is more convenient for me. I won't hurry to do it. I will just do it when I think it is a more convenient time for me. At the end of the day if you want to vote that is the system you have to go through."
Interviewee 3
"A lot of people don't have any ID card and now they have the chance to do their ID card to vote."
Interviewee 4
"I don't think it makes sense because I am Belizean born and everything so you know. We already did it so it should stay like that."
Interviewee 4
"Well it is my first time as myself to contributing my doing in Belize. I registered yesterday."
Sahar Vasquez, reporter
"But you have to register again on July 1st, even if you already registered yesterday. You have to do that again."
Interviewee 4
"Why should I?"
Sahar Vasquez, reporter
"Because they have to clean out the list. There are a lot of people who are deceased on it and different things. So you did that yesterday, but you has to do that again on July 1st. How you feel about that?"
Interviewee 4
"It feel like I have been wasting my time."
Sahar Vasquez, reporter
"They didn't tell you anything?"
Interviewee 4
"No. I just went to registered. All I know that I was going to received my voters ID and I was going to pick it up on Monday. I didn't know that I have to register again. So now I don't know what I should do with that now and I have work. How will I find the time?"
Interviewee 5
"Well I think it is a good process to go through anyway."
Sahar Vasquez
"How long have you been a registered voter for?"
Interviewee 5
"Well for about 20 years."
Sahar Vasquez
"So you think it is about time we do this process over and clean the list?"
Interviewee 6
"I think its a whole heap of crap that the government is trying to bring, because they know who are the real voters, because UDP wants to bring in the Guatemalans to vote every time and wants to register new voters."
Interviewee 9
"It is not something I am looking forward to, but if I have to do it I will do it."
Sahar Vasquez
"So you are willing to go through the process?"
Interviewee 9
"Yes ma" am."
Interviewee 10
"Well it is a good thing because a lot of people is already dead and you don't know who is who."
Interviewee 11
"I feel good about this, so the Guatemalans doesn't come and take advantage of the Belizean people."
Interviewee 12
"I registered since I was 18 years old."
Sahar Vasquez
"But now you have to do it again, because they are cleaning the list."
Interviewee 12
"That is what I am hearing."
Sahar Vasquez
"How do you feel about that?"
Interviewee 12
"I don't think they should do it."
Sahar Vasquez
"Why?"
Interviewee 12
"I am a Belizean and I am born a Belizean and I will die a Belizean."
Interviewee 13
"If we have to do it. So let us just do it and get it over with."
Interviewee 14
"We just have to do what we have to do and that's it."
So, re-registration 2018, starts on Monday, July second. The traditional buildings used as polling stations will be used as registration centers. Centers will be opened from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Mondays to Fridays, and from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. At the end of August 2018, registration centers will be closed, and the Elections and Boundaries Department Registration Offices countrywide will be utilized for the ongoing re-registration exercise.
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