Elections Department Begins Training Officers as Belize Prepares for 2027 Municipal Elections

And in the vein of elections, preparations are already underway for Belize’s next municipal elections scheduled for March 2027, as the Elections and Boundaries Department has begun training officers who will be working the polls across the country.  The training comes in response to recently legislated municipal boundary adjustments, which have expanded and clarified the limits of several towns nationwide. Officials say the changes make early preparation essential to ensure that election officers clearly understand the updated jurisdictions and the voters who now fall within those municipalities.  Chief Elections and Boundaries Officer Josephine Tamai explained that the department has been conducting practical field exercises designed to give officers first-hand exposure to the revised boundaries. The initiative allows officers to visually familiarize themselves with the municipalities and better understand which residents now qualify to vote in those areas.  Tamai noted that one such exercise is currently taking place in western Belize, specifically in Benque Viejo del Carmen Town and the San Ignacio/Santa Elena municipalities.

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer: “We all know that next year we have municipal elections and this is the first time that we will go into these elections with the new town boundaries. I am certain that some people may not realize that since the first of April 2025, there were some changes made to the town boundaries. And so the statutory instruments have been passed and so now at the Elections and Boundaries Department our responsibility is to ensure that persons are placed in the respective municipalities. There are not much changes and I will say that when it comes to the change that we will be seeing, it will be very minimal in most cases. We have some areas whereby some part of town are no longer within the town boundaries, within the town limits. And also now we have some villages that were not a part of the town but now legally they are in these towns. And so these preparations are currently being made so that we ensure that we have an accurate voters list when it comes to the municipal elections coming 2027. We have these maps that are being done for each of the municipalities that we have. I also want to encourage persons to be aware of this change that was made because persons will get affected when it comes to the new boundaries.”

Tamai is encouraging residents to take an active role in the process by verifying their voter status ahead of the elections. She said the Elections and Boundaries Department has made tools available online for voters to confirm whether they are registered within the newly defined municipal boundaries.

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer: “One of the ways that we’re going to ensure that persons are aware is that we’re going to inform those persons you all know that presently Elections and Boundaries have on their website we have the voter lookup. And so whenever an election is approaching we would also ensure that we update the information. And so the information will be placed up there. We will be telling persons if you can vote in a specific municipality or if you’re not qualified to vote in that municipality. And so officers are doing their preliminary investigations right now. And further, we have to ensure that we also have other stakeholders that we work with. We have to work with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Lands Department. We know that when it comes to the municipalities, it’s the Ministry of Local Government that deals with those, as Election and Boundaries we conduct the elections only. And so we’re all working on this exercise together. However, as an Elections and Boundaries Department we need to ensure that persons are placed in the correct municipality to ensure that persons are not disfranchised. If persons have any questions, they could always reach out to the offices for those questions to be answered.”

The Elections and Boundaries Department says these early preparations are part of its broader effort to ensure a smooth and transparent electoral process when Belizeans head to the polls for the municipal elections in March 2027./