7 News Belize

The Vital Truth About Vital Stats
posted (February 21, 2019)
All this week we've been reporting on the difficulties that the PIUP is having with the Vital Statistics Department. The opposition argues that many thousands of Belizeans stand to be left disenfranchise because the department is not moving quickly enough to process their voters registration in time for the referendum.

Today the Prime Minister said that Vital Stats is apprised of the urgency of the situation and is doing its best to work with even the most difficult cases:..

Reporter
"I was at Helpage a few weeks ago and some of the residents...an ICJ forum was happening for the senior citizens. And some of them were, actually, complaining that their records are not there. And these are people who are like 70 or 80. So, my question is not whether or not that is happening, my question is how are we going to address because these are Belizeans."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Prime Minister
"But these are unprovable Belizeans. This is what the Attorney General was explaining to us yesterday. That, 'look, before there was a complaint about records that are half torn,' that you can fix. Anything, if it never made its way onto the computer but some little thing, that you fix. But he said, 'What do you want me to do when there is no record at all of somebody there.' Their mom never registered them or something went wrong. You asked them for baptismal certificate, you ask them to bring a teacher, and they can't provide anybody because of the advanced age. The man said, 'What do you want me to do? I can't just give them a birth certificate.' It's a huge human problem. Unless we pass some kind of law; and I wonder what that law will say. Well, if somebody comes and says I was born here and it's clear he talks creole and so on, and his face, especially in old age, looks like he is innocent, we give him without more. No man, you must have some kind of swearing for the person. By some neighbor or some school official, something. But in the absence of any documentation, whatsoever, the people at Vital Stats are stuck."

Reporter
"So, is that an acceptable option, in terms of getting some sort of affidavit from, I don't know, a long-time neighbor or a relative?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"Yes, yes. The Attorney General says he is willing to, I almost said accept anything [laughs], go as far as he possibly can."

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