We're 8 days away from the ICJ referendum, and the Elections and Boundaries office is ready to get on with what is expected to be the biggest non-political vote in Belize's history.
But, of course, it is political - and the ads on this very newscast can tell you all about that.
But at the end of the day - the politicians can do or say what they want: it's going to be up to the 148,500 registered voters who are eligible to cast ballots at 344 polling stations countrywide.
Today, the Chief Elections Office, Josephine Tamai gave the public an idea of what to expect from a different kind of election count. The results will not be reported on a constituency basis: they will be aggregated at a central counting station in Belize city - where the"yes" or "no" votes will need a simple majority to get a victory. She explained the counting, the have a projected timeframe for when you can expect to see results:...
Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"It won't be that the returning officers will be declaring the results in the electoral division. We know that this is a national issue and it is something that is happening in the entire country of Belize. So the reason for that being when it comes to the compilation of the results it's an overall simple majority in regards to the entire voting population. It's not to say that in a certain division you have so many person YES, so many NO and you say the results in a division is basically YES or NO. It's basically the result for the entire country of Belize. That is the reason why the election and boundaries department will be putting together all the information coming from the returning officers on that day. Yes, we will have information by electoral divisions and so that information we will be having a media center and I want to invite the media who you all will be able to come to that media center on the night of the 8th. That will be at the Biltmore whereby as the results are coming in the information and the results will be unofficial. The information will be coming in from the returning officers to us. We will be verifying that information and putting up at different intervals as we get those throughout the night."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"People want a clear idea of what is shaping up, how will that work the fact that it's not that you win Pickstock - UDP win Pickstock or YES win Pickstock. It's not so clear. How will you match the reality of what you have to do against the expectations of the public?"
Josephine Tamai
"The public has expectations, but we also have laws that we have to abide by. Because it's a national issue and yes it's the first of its kind whereby it's a standalone referendum, but I basically believe that it's just for the public to understand this is not a general election as such. This is overall. It is for the entire country of Belize, so we are not able to say which constituency is winning for YES or which one for NO. That does not determine the results. It's a simple majority overall."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Would you make a projection as to when we will start or when we will be having a picture of which side is winning YES or NO?"
Josephine Tamai
"LIke I mention because we have counting happening simultaneously and no one box will have more than 5-6 hundred maximum ballot paper to be counted. In terms of the counting I do not see that the counting will take very long. It's just the returning officers putting together all the information from all the polling stations in their electoral divisions and provide that information to us. When it comes we have to verify the figures before, because even though its unofficial it's not that we could just place the information as it comes to us. We have to make sure that we verify those figures first and then we will do that. I am anticipating that maybe by midnight into early morning we should have the entire results."
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