AS St Vincent and the Grenadines gear up for the general election next week Thursday, people arriving in the country after Saturday will not be allowed to vote as they will be subjected to the mandatory quarantine period.
iWitness News reported that Opposition politician Kay Bacchus-Baptiste said, “The reason being is that there is a mandatory five-day quarantine at a hotel approved by the government, so that once you come in after the 31st of this month, you have to be in quarantine and you will not be permitted to break that quarantine so that you can vote.”
She added that registered voters who enter the country before October 31 will be permitted to vote, even if they were still in quarantine but only if they have completed the mandatory five-day quarantine at a hotel and were self-quarantining at home.
Those persons will be allowed to vote during a special time 5 pm to 5.30 pm.
However she questioned how that time frame was possible given that voting must end by 5 pm and suggested that the Attorney General was working to have an amendment to the required regulation to allow for such.
Bacchus-Baptiste said, “If persons are being brought in by planeloads for the purpose of voting, that can be regarded as treating and that will be an offence. If persons, just on their own, come into St Vincent, then that is not treating and they can go to vote.”
iWitness News also reported that Bacchus-Baptiste said persons who were in quarantine but permitted to vote can get themselves from their home to their various polling stations and they will still be required to vote in the polling stations at which they are registered.
