Barbados Government to lift curfew on general election night
The Barbados government says the curfew put in place to help curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will be lifted on the night of the January 19 general election even as opposition parties contemplate mounting a legal challenge to allow people who have tested positive for the virus vote.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Dale Marshall, in a statement said that as of midnight January 6, the current COVID directive expired and that the new COVID directive will last until January 31.
“This new directive will be very much the same as the previous recent directives, in that there will be a curfew from midnight each night until 5:00 a.m. the following morning,” the statement noted.
“There will be one exception to that rule, however. On election night, there will be no curfew at all. The rationale behind this really draws from the history of our last experience on election night, where voting was considerably delayed until well into the hours of the next morning.”
Marshall said in addition to that, “with our COVID numbers rising it is difficult to predict what might happen on election night, in relation to the slowing down of various processes.
“And therefore, we feel it best, having considered all of the scenarios, to leave the way clear for the Electoral and Boundaries Commission to do their work properly and unrushed, taking as much time as is necessary without running afoul of the directives,” Marshall said.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who in 2018, led the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to a clean sweep of all 30 seats in the Parliament, called the snap elections, at least 18 months before the constitutional deadline, insisting that she would not allow Barbados to enter 2022 as a divided nation.
Health authorities report 420 positive COVID-19 cases, from 1,978 tests conducted on January 5. There have been 264 deaths.
The authorities say since February 2020, there have been 30,597 recoveries and under the National Vaccination Programme for COVID-19, the total number of persons with at least one dose is 156,101.
In the meantime, minority opposition parties are hinting at the possibility of taking legal action against the electoral authorities who are seeking to prevent voters who have tested positive for the virus and placed in isolation from voting.
The Leader of Solutions Barbados, Grenville Phillips II, says once the facts related to any court action and the basis for such are firmly established, his party will have no problem joining a lawsuit.
The recently formed Alliance Party for Progress (APP), headed by outgoing Opposition Leader, Bishop Joseph Atherley, is suggesting legal action against the government to ensure provisions are made for COVID-19-positive people to vote in the election or to postpone the polls.
Atherley has called on opposition parties to come together after the chairman of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Leslie Haynes, QC, said persons who tested positive for COVID-19 and are in isolation or quarantine cannot vote.
Atherley said if legal action is not taken, thousands of eligible voters will be “robbed” of their franchise.
Neither the ruling Barbados Labour Party nor the Democratic Labour Party has issued any position on the matter.
Meanwhile, Senior Counsel, Garth Patterson, says the courts may find it necessary to undertake a judicial review of the government’s decision to dissolve Parliament and call the election in the current COVID-19 climate.
Patterson, who has been practising constitutional law for the past 35 years, said that even the very electoral laws may also be “vulnerable” to constitutional challenge in the present circumstances.
“A qualified elector who is being prevented from voting because of the COVID-19 infection may have a legitimate basis for complaining to a court that, in all the circumstances, his right to vote has been unlawfully infringed.”
He said that the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice, the island’s highest court, has held that every person or institution in Barbados functions under the Barbados Constitution, being the supreme law of the land, and is duty-bound to act rationally, reasonably, and fairly.
“No government can freely ignore the law, and the right to vote is enshrined in the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), which the Constitution mandates must make provision for every qualified voter to have a reasonable opportunity of voting in a general election.
“This includes every otherwise qualified COVID-positive voter. To the extent that the existing electoral law fails to make adequate provision for voting other than by in-person voting at a polling station (for example voting by mail) during the pandemic, the law itself may also be vulnerable to constitutional challenge.
He said while it is illegal to break home isolation or quarantine without the expressed authority of the Chief Medical Officer, no exception has been carved out for persons exercising their right to vote.
/CMC
