|
Held on Wednesday, March 5, 2003
I.
Myrtle Palacio
Chief Elections Officer
ELECTIONS & BOUNDARIES DEPARTMENT
April 2003
I.
INTRODUCTION
-
The primary
sources for this report are my observations as Chief Elections Officer
(CEO), briefings and discussions with Officers-Police and Public
Officers, meetings with candidates and their agents, written and
verbal reports from Returning Officers, evaluation meeting with
Returning Officers and reports from staff of Elections and Boundaries
Department.
-
By law, Wednesday,
March 5, 2003 was scheduled as the date for Municipal Elections.
As it is, this would have been the first time that both City and
Town Council Elections are held on the very same day. Also it was
the first time that a second City was included. Already this was
a double election to prepare for.
-
On Friday,
January 24, 2003, Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, as is his prerogative,
announced the date of the impending General Elections, to be held
also on March 5, 2003. This announcement meant that three
not two elections would be held on the same day-never before
attempted in Belize, and a first for the Caribbean.
II. PREPARATION
-
One of the
disadvantages of being a government department is the limited human
resource for the level of flexibility expected of the Staff. Compounding
this is the stark reality of the tensions caused by our unique working
environment-the only department whose primary customers are
the past, present and future employers. A two day staff retreat
was held in December 2002 under the theme: "Rounding The
Bend: Maintaining Change". The main objective was
to continue the staff empowerment process by boosting self-confidence,
ensuring team focus and enthusiasm, in preparation for Elections
2003. With the assistance of facilitators from the Public Service
Union, Public and Private Sectors, 5 topics were reviewed. These
were, Team Building, Conflict Management, Organizational Change,
Leadership and Customer Service.
- The Election
was organized and implemented by a small administration namely, the
Chief Elections Officer, an Assistant who is relatively new to the
department, one Secretary and one Receptionist. Strategies were put
in place on Saturday, January 25, 2003, which included the following:
- Floor plan
to accommodate a double election in one Polling Station
- Coopt other
skills through other government departments
-
The 29 Electoral
Divisions are further subdivided into 131 Polling Areas (Appendix
i). Some 44 Polling Areas would experience double elections,
including 23 in Belize City. Utilizing barriers, the strategy was
to physically divide a Polling Station into two units to allow for
2 elections-Municipal (Town or City) and General (Appendix ii).
Each of the Polling Stations would accommodate 2 sets of election
workers, one for each election, namely: 1 Presiding Officer and
1 Poll Clerk for Municipal Election, 1 Presiding Officer and 1 Poll
Clerk for General Election. One Assistant Poll Clerk would check
the binders at Polling Stations with dual elections. The counting
of ballots was to be conducted simultaneously at separate Counting
Stations for Municipal and General Elections. Most Polling and Counting
Stations were the traditional school buildings, community centres
and other public buildings (Appendix i).
-
Two ballot
papers of the same style and format utilized at Municipal Elections
2000 and General Elections 1998, were utilized. Two different colour
indelible inks and fingers were used. The forefinger was dipped
in violet colour indelible ink as an indication that one had voted
in the General Election, while the middle finger was dipped in rosé
colour indelible ink for the Municipal Election. For quick and efficient
movement of electors, the number of Polling Stations was increased
to more than double that of 1998. Also, more polling booths were
recommended (Appendix i) for Municipal than General. This was under
the assumption that voting for Municipal would take a longer time
than for the General Election.
- A total of
1,432 Election Workers (Table 1) were recruited as Returning Officers,
Election Clerks, Poll Clerks, Assistant Poll Clerks and Counting Clerks-567
for Municipal and 865 for General Elections.
Table 1
Election workers
are mandated with the conduct and management of elections on Election
Day. Returning Officers, Election Clerks and Assistant Election Clerks
are the general administrators, and as such are charged with all management
responsibilities, including the proper supervision and guidance of
staff, namely, Presiding Officers, Poll Clerks, Assistant Poll Clerks
and Counting Clerks. The CEO communicated with these administrators
via: 3 meetings/workshops, memoranda, individually by telephone and/or
face-to-face discussions, briefings on the 3rd and 4th March. Election
administrative staff was increased for the first time, to have, Assistant
Election Clerks for Belize City and for all rural constituencies.
A list of Returning Officers and Election Clerks is attached at (Appendix
iii).
- For efficiency,
ease and transparency of counting, Returning Officers were provided
with guidelines and forms including (Appendices iv - vi):
- Two Statutory
Instruments were signed as follows:
-
Statutory
Instrument No. 14 of 2003-to remove restriction to the close
of registration caused by Nomination date for General Elections.
This allowed voters to register up to the 10th day of February
2003
-
Statutory
Instrument No. 43 of 2003-to allow for more counting agents
for General Elections
- Two meetings
were held with members of the Commission in February and March regarding
Plans for the Elections including:
- Layout of
Polling Stations with dual Elections
- Election
Administrators-Returning Officers and Election Clerks
- Tentative
list of Polling Stations
- Preparation
of the electoral role
Handouts were
distributed by the CEO who requested the full support and assistance
of Members in effecting a smooth, efficient election.
- Two consultations/briefing
sessions were held with Secretary Generals of
the People's United Party and United Democratic Party, Representatives
of
Independent Candidates, and Independent Candidates themselves. They
were given the same handouts as the Commission Members and Returning
Officers, including memoranda regarding the counting policy etc. (Appendices
iv - vi).
- At the last
meeting, Commissioners and Candidates/Party Representatives were invited,
in separate groups, to inspect the new ballot boxes and the locks.
A staff member demonstrated this.
- Two sets of
electoral lists were utilized-one consisted of all electors to January
2003 (January List) and the other (February List), electors registered
in February 2003. Three hard and one electronic copies of the list
were delivered to the People's United Party and United Democratic
Party, and three hard copies to the Independent Candidates in their
areas of interest. These were distributed on the following dates:
- United Democratic
Party-Wednesday, February 26, 2003
- People's
United Party-Thursday, February 27, 2003
- Independent-
Thursday, February 27, 2003
The Supplementary
Lists for February were hand-delivered to both PUP and UDP on February
15, 2003. Final Revision day for the February List was February
28, 2003; not including four appeals received forty-eight hours
later.
Both the People's United Party and United Democratic Party received
the February Lists on Monday, March 3, 2003, with the exception
of Dangriga, which were distributed on Tuesday, March 4, 2003 (Ref.
Paragraph 22).
III. INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
-
For the first
time, Manuals were produced and distributed to Election Workers,
as well as Political Agents of the two major Political Parties.
Some 1,500 Public Officers were trained during 22 workshops conducted
countrywide.
-
Information
was shared with the Commissioner of Police and his Assistant during
four briefing sessions, including a three hour discussion with all
Senior Police Officers and the Chief Executive Officer, Ministry
of Home Affairs. Proxy papers and other handouts, such as a list
of Polling Stations were distributed.
- Extensive voter
information was conducted commencing February 1, 2003. These were
designed to:
- be Progressive-from
the general to the specific
- utilize a
mix of methods
- use of 3
popular languages-Spanish, English, and Creole
- use of different
types of media
Table 2 demonstrates
the topics for some of the messages presented to the Public.
Table
2
-
The Chief Elections
Officer participated in six radio and television Talk Shows on KREM
and LOVE FM. Two of these included the participation of the Chief
Executive Officer, Ministry of The Public Service, The President
of the Public Service Union, and the President of the Association
of Senior Public Officers.
-
The Chief Elections
Officer was invited to address the student body of St. John's Jr.
College in Belize City on Tuesday, February 25, 2003.
- The Website
www.belize-elections.org was updated to include copies of:
-
Publications-3
brochures, Booklet: "Selecting Our Leaders Past and
Present", the Manuals mentioned in paragraph 15
above
-
The layout
of the floor plan, with animations demonstrating how to vote
in two Elections
-
Statistics
on the electoral population
-
Map of
Belize showing 29 constituencies, with hyperlink to other data
-
A list
of the Polling and Counting Stations
- The following
was done to keep stakeholders abreast of the Registration and Revision
processes:
IV.
SOME CHALLENGES
- There were challenges
that occurred very near to Election Day that could have adversely
affected the efficient administration of the elections. These included:
- Aberrations
in the system
- Non-availability
of vehicles
- Inadequate
telephone system
- In-availability
of staff lists
-
Registration
constraints
-
Investigations
conducted at the Dangriga Office on March 2, 2003 uncovered a box
containing 271 unprocessed Record Cards for February. These were
brought to Belize City for the necessary processing. If these were
not discovered and processed, it is highly likely that these persons
would not have been able to vote. The cards were processed in time,
but not without unnecessary hardships and anxieties on all involved.
-
Of the 188
vehicles requested from the Vehicle Care Unit (Appendix vii) only
58 were actually available on March 4, 2003. Notwithstanding Circular
No. 3 of 2003 from the Ministry of Finance, some Public Officers
refused to surrender vehicles in their charge, causing unnecessary
hardships to some Returning Officers and Election Clerks.
-
Some 17 (20%)
of cellular phones issued to Returning Officers and Election Clerks,
malfunctioned on Election Day. So did land phones at 21 Polling
Stations. This adversely affected communication for the posting
of data to the website. Subsequently, CEO advised Returning Officers
to communicate the hourly statistics to media houses in their districts,
for wider distribution of information to the Public.
-
There is not
one arm of government empowered to compile a complete list of
persons paid from the public purse. A staff list of Public Officers
was last updated in 2000 by the Ministry of The Public Service.
Even if the list was current, it would not reflect all Public Officers
for various reasons. Elections and Boundaries Department reverted
to requesting staff lists through individual Departments and Ministries.
However, some of the lists received were also not updated to reflect
the present situation of individual Departments. As a result, the
initial letters of appointment sent, and subsequently the list of
staff submitted to Returning Officers included a large percentage
of persons who could not be found; for reasons ranging from, resigned
to study leave. Therefore, the appointment of Election Workers was
not timely and also time consuming.
-
Allowing for
electors to register up to the 99th hour is a great advantage to
the Elector and the Politician. For Electoral Administrators it
is a nightmare. In the situation for February 2003, the February
List could not be completed until after February 28 and in some
cases, due to pending appeals, 2 days after Revision date. This
does not give adequate time to properly process and prepare lists
to satisfy the demands of some Candidates and/or Political Parties.
V. ELECTORAL LIST
-
The population
of the electoral roll at February 2003 was approximately 126,000,
representing 91% of voter age population. Approximately 11,000 persons
registered in the last two months, January and February 2003. This
is equivalent to a full year's workload.
-
The table at
Appendix viii demonstrates annual growth of the electoral roll by
electoral division. The large growth and decline reflected in Stann
Creek West and Toledo East Divisions respectively, in December 2002,
are due to the recent boundary changes. The table also demonstrates
0% growth in Collet for December 2001 and negative growth (-1.1%)
for December 2002.
- The range in
growth of the other 26 divisions is from 3.2% for Mesopotamia to 15.3%
in Lake Independence. Four electoral divisions demonstrate double-digit
percentage growth namely:
- Belize Rural
North - 10.4%
- Belize Rural
South - 11.0%
- Queen's
Square - 13.4%
- Lake Independence
- 15.3%
Of the 4 divisions,
Queen's Square stands out as unusual, primarily because it lacks
the land space for growth as the other 3. For January and February
2003, the growth ranged from 4.1% to 14.3% for Orange Walk South
(Appendix viii).
-
The electoral
roll at February 2003 represents an increase of approximately 32,000
or a growth of 33% over 1998.
VI. ELECTION DAY
- For all staff
members, Election Day commenced at 5:00 a.m. on March 5, 2003 and
for 5 of us at the Central Office, concluded March 6 at 9:35 p.m.
This meant working over 40 hours non-stop. The workload ranged from:
- Manning
telephones
- Cooling
hot spots
- Responding
to queries
- Replenishing
supplies
- Reassuring
- Being the
general information center
- Inputting
statistics to the website maintenance
Notwithstanding
voter information asking voters to ensure where to vote before Election
Day, most queries were from those who went to the wrong Polling
Station. Queries came via the telephone, e-mail, as well as face-to-face
visits to our Offices countrywide.
-
Polling Stations
were opened on time. I polled some Returning Officers and others
called in between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m.. In Belize City, I visited
6 divisions-3 north side and 3 south side prior to the opening of
polls. I assisted in re-arranging the desks to the illustration
recommended in the Floor Plan for a better flow of traffic. Although
all polling stations were pre-arranged for the Election Officers,
there were those who re-organized the Polling Stations to suit the
"old" way. This only occurred in Belize
City.
-
In Belize City
the lines were long at most polling stations by 7:00 a.m. I assisted
the Election Clerk to organize lines prior to the commencement of
polling at Sister Clara Mohammed School, Polling Area No. 20, Port
Loyola Division.
-
I observed
the opening of polls at the Customs Building, Polling Area No. 22,
Port Loyola Division. Not all scrutinizers were in place, but voting
was orderly. The orderliness continued countrywide throughout the
day. Whatever hiccups occurred earlier were reconciled by mid-morning.
One pocket of verbal violence came from one Polling Station in Lake
Independence at the close of polls, but common sense prevailed and
the Police intervened.
-
The first result
for General Election (Pickstock) came at approximately 10:00 p.m.
By 12:45 a.m. the 21st result heralded 15 seats for the People's
United Party, an indication that the PUP is to form the next Government.
This was verified and officially announced by the CEO at 1:10 a.m.
-
Election results
for all 7 towns were announced by 3:42 a.m. The two Cities-Belize
City and Belmopan, were unusually slow in their counting process
for several reasons. The CEO dispatched fresh counters to assist
on Thursday morning to both Counting Stations. Belmopan City called
in the official result around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. The
Returning Officer for Belize City hand delivered the official result
on Friday morning around 10:45 a.m.
-
Voting was
free of violence, and the transition to a new government was smooth
as is the culture of Belize-3 in one day for 2003.
VII. POST-ELECTION
-
The Department
received commendations from international, as well as national sources,
ranging from well wishers to those who have monitored elections
in other countries. This came via e-mail, telephone calls and letters.
Several e-mail letters were received from Belizean Americans and
students abroad.
-
There was one
area of criticism/condemnation from the Guardian Newspaper of Sunday
March 16, 2003, some 11 days after Election Day. The Guardian is
the official organ of the United Democratic Party. The article on
page 9 entitled "The Worst Managed Election Ever"
was written by the Editor Mr. Herbert Panton. Mr. Panton
is also a member of the Elections and Boundaries Commission. However,
the Elections and Boundaries Department did not see nor hear from
Mr. Panton before, during or after the Elections to offer assistance,
caution or advice in his capacity as a member of the Commission.
His criticism, which the Department considers was without any basis,
has to be seen in the context of the prevailing political atmosphere
in the country.
-
Presently the
Department is still in post-election mode as there are several duties
to complete before going back to what is perceived as normal. Therefore,
the schedules are still abnormal. The hardest is the time consuming
auditing of the electoral list against record cards to ensure 100%
accuracy after binders were returned by the Election Workers.
- To date not
one single petition/challenge to the three Elections has been
presented, not even a recount. There is confidence in the electoral
process. The will of the people was expressed in free and fair and
free from fear elections on Wednesday, March 5, 2003.
VIII. ELECTION RESULTS
GENERAL ELECTIONS
-
Of the 29 Seats
in the Parliamentary Elections, the People's United Party (PUP)
garnered 22 and the United Democratic Party (UDP) 7 (Appendix ix).
Some 79.51% turned out to vote represented over 100,000 electors.
The seventeen independent candidates cumulatively received 1.26%
of the votes. Mr. Wilfred Elrington (Independent) garnered more
votes than an opponent from a major Political Party (UDP). This
is the second such occurrence in Belize; the first being the Elections
of 1954 in the Belize Rural constituency. The PUP garnered 52.75%
of the votes and the UDP 45.22%. Although there were 3 elections,
the number of rejected ballots was minimal. At 0.77% it is comparable
to other elections, including 1998.
-
The 79.51%
turnout is extremely high compared with '84, '89 and '93 (Appendix
x). Twice when there was a new Electoral List in 1979 and
1998, were the only times that voter turnout was over 80%. At 1979
it was 89.78%, but 5 years later at 1984, it was down to 74.93%.
In 1998 there was a new Electoral List and voter turnout was 90.14%.
At 2003 turnout was 5% higher than in 1984.
MUNICIPAL
ELECTIONS
-
This was the
second election for leaders of the City of Belmopan. Voter turnout
was 70.69%, with 0.10% rejected ballots (Appendix xi). The PUP won
all 7 seats with Mr. Anthony Chanona re-elected as Mayor. The PUP
garnered 53.33%, the UDP 34.10%; and the 5 independent candidates
12.57%. Voter turnout was slightly higher than that of the 2000
elections, which was 69.51%.
-
For the first
time Belize City Council Election was held on the same day as the
Town Council Elections. As mentioned earlier (paragraph 36) the
tally of the result was unusually long. The PUP won all 11 seats
and Mr. David Fonseca was re-elected as Mayor. The PUP garnered
54.78%, the UDP 44.18% and the three Independent Candidates 1.04%.
Voter turnout at 69.61% for 2003 is approximately 12% higher than
the voter turnout for the 1999 elections.
- Of the 7 towns,
PUP captured 4 and UDP 3 (Appendix xii). The number of seats won is
as follows:
- People's
United Party -
29
- United Democratic
Party - 20
In the Town
of San Pedro Ambergris Caye, voters elected a politically mixed
Council-6 UDP, one PUP (Ms. Merlene 'Mel' Spain). The elected Mayors,
including the first female, are listed below (Appendix xii).
|
Towns
|
Mayors
|
San Pedro Ambergris
Caye
Benque Viejo del Carmen
San Ignacio/Santa Elena
Dangriga
Punta Gorda
Orange Walk
Corozal |
Elsa Paz
Said Badi Guerra
Alfonso Cruz Jr.
Cassian Nunez
Carlos Galvez
Henry Castillo
Mario Narvaez |
IX. RECOMMENDATIONS
- Policies:
-
Use of
government owned vehicles for election and emergency work takes
priority once those responsible are informed
-
One arm
of government to be charged with the updating and maintenance
of a list of all workers paid from the public purse.
All Departments/Ministries to submit updates on a quarterly
basis. This list is to be shared with all Departments and Ministries
at least twice per year.
-
Training
in and responsibility for election work to be ongoing. Training
may be included in seminars/workshops conducted or approved
for or by the Public Service; and for all levels in the Public
Service.
-
All Senior
Officers to be aware of the responsibility to manage elections.
Once appointed, the tasks involved automatically take priority.
-
All Public
Officers, including Teachers, to be aware of the responsibility
to conduct elections
-
Telephones
to be installed/issued some 48 hours before Election Day
- Three buildings
that are not conducive as polling stations:
Three Polling Areas
require Public Buildings as Polling Stations:
- Upgrade/empower
Elections and Boundaries Department to deal directly with other government
bodies. This is already occurring informally, but needs to be formalized.
Click
here to view Appendix
[PDF Fomat]
|
PDF
Download:
|
Click the icon to the right if you do not yet have the free
Acrobat Reader. Then click the link above to view the document |
<<HOME
|
