BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - As plans are being made in the run up to the January 19 general election, the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) says that the issue of COVID-19 positive persons exercising their right to vote was discussed during a virtual press conference on Saturday.
Ronald Chapman (Barbados GIS Photo)The conference was convened to update the public on preparations being made to ensure their safety on election day.
Head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit, Ronald Chapman, indicated that persons at the Harrison’s Point Isolation Facility or any other isolation facility, and those in home isolation would be required to stay put on election day.
“We understand that voting is a cornerstone of our democracy. However, we are still in a pandemic and those persons are highly infectious. We wouldn’t want those persons to go out to a polling station where we know that we have all cadres of Barbadians there….
“We still want to be safe, and we are asking persons who know that if they are feeling ill, please stay at home; if you know you have a confirmed diagnosis for COVID and you are in isolation, stay put,” he stated.
Chapman explained that the Harrison’s Point and other isolation facilities were an extension of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and persons hospitalized “stayed put” during an election.
He added that the Ministry of Health and Wellness recently announced the presence of the Omicron variant in Barbados, and warned that it was even more infectious than the Delta strain.
“So, we have to be able to balance those two. They have to be able to err on the side of continuity of the country as much as possible. I recognize… it is a tough pill to swallow. It is a tough pill to swallow for anyone … who wants to be a part of this process. But we have to be our brother’s keeper….,” he said.
However, Chapman made it clear that he was not saying people who were COVID-19 positive could not vote.
He gave the assurance that protocols were in place to deal with situations where people arrive at polling districts exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, or were asymptomatic, could be processed quickly to reduce the risk to others.
“But, we’re asking Barbadians please if you know you are ill, if you know you are infectious, please do not come out and share that infection with others,” he said. However, attorney-at-law and Deputy Chairman of the EBC, Hal Gollop, cautioned that the issue had a “strong legal element” attached, and therefore any decision should be deferred until the Legal Advisor to the Commission expressed an opinion.
Barbadians will go to the poll on January 18 – while nomination day will be on Monday, January 3.
