System to be reviewed for voting in post-COVID times

Next Wednesday’s by-election in St George North will be used as a test run for the conduct of future elections in Barbados in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s regulator has said.

New Chairman of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC), Queen’s Counsel Leslie Haynes revealed this afternoon that while mail-in ballots similar to what is used in the United States of America may not be necessary here, it is not being ruled out.

“I don’t know that we need mail-in ballots in Barbados as yet because our constituencies are basically about 10,000 people each and we can easily handle those 10,000…we can easily handle our voters in one day. This of course, depends on how well things go on Wednesday next week,” Haynes told Barbados TODAY.

“The St George North constituency has something like 9,000, nearly 10,000. So once we can handle them efficiently and ensure that all the COVID protocols are enforced – we are working with the Ministry of Health in relation to COVID protocols – we can look at it as a test run,” the EBC head said.

“If it goes well, then those methods can be transferred to the other constituencies,” he added.

Haynes also addressed the question of lessons which Barbados can learn from the current conduct of the Presidential election in the US where challenges with its COVID-19 cases are mounting.

“We will have lessons to be learnt against the backdrop of COVID from our by-election next week to see whether we can run an election in COVID times and not have a local spike or community spread,” the commission chair stated.

He told Barbados TODAY, it is therefore critical that the EBC keeps a close watch over that poll.

“So it is very important for the Electoral and Boundaries Commission to monitor the by-election next week…it is almost like a test run for us for the general election coming in two and a half years’ time or before,” Haynes emphasized.

The EBC head also drew attention to how the high-risk elderly voter population will be treated while casting their ballot in the by-election. He said priority will be given to this group of constituents.

“What we are having for the elderly is that [while] most of the polling stations do not have a separate room for them, we will ensure that the elderly above 65 will be given priority so far as possible,” Haynes said.

“In other words, once you come to the gate and you are 65, we are going to have a separate line for you and you will be given priority to enter the polling station. So you can come, vote and move out quickly,” he assured.

Haynes explained that if separate rooms were made available for the elderly this would involve a greater cost to run the election.

“If we had more room, we would have to have a separate room for the elderly, then we would have to have separate polling clerks and that type of thing and it would increase the cost of the election tremendously. But as I said, this is a test run,” he reiterated.

“Because of this test run we would know how to adjust for the general election,” Haynes stressed.

He contended that in any case, all the required COVID-19 protocols will be in place for voters including the over 65s.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)