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In less than 6 weeks, Belizean voters will be going to the polls for the ICJ referendum.

It’s pretty much a like a big election, except instead of voting for a political party, voters will say yes or no to the ICJ. 

For the Elections and Boundaries Department, the pressure is on, because that office has to conduct and oversee an national election process, but without the usual input from the major mass parties.  

Last week, the department sent out a release inviting all the different groups represented in the National Assembly to appoint monitors to observe the elections. 

These monitors will act like an oversight mechanism, to ensure that this referendum is conducted in a free and fair manner. The groups being allowed to appoint monitors include the ruling UDP, the PUP and all the social partners in the National Assembly including the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Belize Business Bureau; the National Trade Union Congress and the Civil Society Steering Committee; the Council of Churches and the Evangelical Association, and the Non-Governmental Organizations. 

These groups all have representation in the House of Representatives or the Senate. 

Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai and her office held an extended meeting with representatives from all these organizations today at the Inspiration Center. We got a chance to speak with her about the important role that these monitors will play in the referendum next month:

Josephine Tamai - Chief Elections Officer
"The purpose of this meeting today is for us to engage the stakeholders. We sent out a press release inviting persons who are members of the National Assembly to serve as referendum monitors for the Referendum on April 10th, 2019. We want to ensure that we have transparency and accountability in the process. You all will know that this referendum is not an election where you have candidates. The law speaks to the appointment of agents of candidates when there is an election. In this case, we want to ensure that we have persons who are there to monitor the entire process from the counting and also the polling. We want to ensure that everything, like I mentioned, is - we’re held accountable for the actions that we do when it comes to preparations leading up to Referendum Day. And Referendum Day, we know that public officers are the persons who actually conduct the referendum. So, again, we want to ensure that we have a smooth process, and for persons to see exactly what is happening in those polling and counting stations."

"Since we have organizations engaged, we want to ensure that these organizations know exactly what is expected from them when it comes to being a monitor, the roles and responsibilities. The monitors will be allowed  - like I mentioned - in the polling stations. When they go into the polling stations, they will be there to observed that the box is empty prior to the opening of polls, to look behind the booths to see that there is nothing behind those booths to give any voter any indication of how you want them to vote. You want them to see how voters are voting, not in terms of the yes or the no, but they’re coming in quite smoothly, those who are eligible to vote are the persons who are voting on Referendum Day."

Chief Elections Officer Tamai told us that apart from these local monitors, international observers will be in Belize to also oversee the election. She says that they’ve gotten positive responses from CARICOM and the Commonwealth. She added that the US Embassy has also expressed interest, as well as the Taiwanese Embassy, and she expects that other representatives may make requests between now and April 10th.