_{Maricarmen Plata, Chief, OAS Electoral Observation Mission in Belize}

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 20, 2025

The Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Observation Mission to Belize concluded its working visit and submitted its 19-page preliminary report on March 14. The officials visited 12 of the 29 divisions where elections were held on March 12. In a message from Maricarmen Plata, Chief of the Mission, she described the elections as peaceful and successful. At the same time, she expressed the hope that their recommendations would be implemented to ensure strengthening of the electoral process and democracy in Belize. In particular, she said they welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to conduct a redivisioning exercise early in his new term. She added, “We also appreciate his openness to exploring options for campaign finance legislation that are relevant and implementable within the Belizean political and social context.”

The report cites that the 2012 and 2015 OAS observation missions had both made recommendations to strengthen the autonomy of Belize’s electoral management to ensure adequate oversight. The 2025 OAS mission has now recommended that neutrality of the electoral administration be enhanced as part of the reform process started with the People’s Constitution Commission under the previous Briceño administration. One suggestion is that members of the Elections and Boundaries Commission be prevented from holding positions in political parties. To make that process more transparent, the mission recommends that technical criteria be implemented for the selection of commissioners, and that third parties and civil society organizations be included.

As it relates to campaign finance, the mission recommends the implementation of regulations to define campaign expenditure limits, and set out contribution limits for individual donors. Additionally, it recommends the establishment of independent oversight bodies to monitor and report compliance with campaign financing regulations. It calls for those bodies to be given the authority to investigate and audit financial disclosures. This would also require that political parties are registered and submit annual audited financials.

The Mission did take note of the political context leading up to the elections, including the attempts to stop the election for a redivisioning to be held first, as well as the division within the opposition which led to multiple candidates having the same colour on the ballot paper. The Mission recorded the concerns of stakeholders on these issues.

OAS mission recommends increased reliability in voter identification process

Interestingly, the Mission reported being informed by Belize’s electoral authorities that the presentation of voters’ IDs was not mandatory during the voting process. Having a photograph and being of an upgraded quality, the Mission considers that the ID is a reliable standardized means of identification which “supports the reliable identification of voters during elections.” According to the information provided to the Mission by electoral authorities, if a voter turns up without their ID, the presiding officer can identify a voter by other means “including verifying that their information corresponds with the data contained in the voters’ list and/or the registration documents held by the electoral and polling station officials.”

The Mission therefore recommends that the Representation of the People Act be amended to require that voters present their voters ID card when voting. Additionally, it calls for the inclusion of a photograph in the voters’ list to provide polling station officials with an additional mechanism to verify the identity of voters.

Elections and Boundaries Department encouraged to implement mechanism to share preliminary results

Meanwhile, the mission also supports that the Elections and Boundaries Department use technology to provide preliminary results of the election’s outcome just as it provides data regarding hourly voter turnout. For the 2025 general elections, the Department relied on 48 staff members at the Central Office in Belmopan to enter the voter turnout information received by phone from the presiding officers around the country. They used an app that has been developed in partnership with Total Business Solutions.

The OAS mission observed that the same app was used to receive and publish division-level election results of the Count-1 Form from the returning officers who were using cell phones and a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet. However, the Mission noted that the Department did not consider the information official until the signed paperwork arrived from the divisions at the central office in Belmopan. In a few cases, those did not arrive until the following morning.

The OAS mission believes that the Department already has the infrastructure to fully implement a preliminary results system, “including the preliminary winning candidate in every division and the preliminary number of seats.” The mission affirms that this will provide the public with an official source of preliminary election results, rather than through the media as is the case at this time.

More campaign financing support encouraged for women to increase political participation

As it relates to women’s participation in the 2025 general elections, the Mission reported that participation reduced by 3% from the November 2020 general elections when 15% of candidates were women.

For the 2025 elections, there were only 11 women candidates out of 90 or 12% representation despite women comprising 51.29% of Belize’s voters’ list. According to the Statistical Institute of Belize’s mid-year population estimates for 2024, women represent 50.8% of our population.

The mission recommends that measures be put in place to ensure campaign support for women to allow for a more level playing field.