OAS Chief of Mission Observes Calm and Orderly Election Process in Belize

The Organization of American States (OAS) has deployed a 12-member observation team from seven different nationalities to monitor Belize’s 2025 General Election. The mission, led by Chief of Mission Maricarmen Plata, has been actively observing the process since the opening of polls and has reported a peaceful and orderly election so far.

Speaking from St. Martin’s, Plata noted that the OAS team has been deployed across the country, gathering feedback from various constituencies. While voter turnout has been steady, she expressed hope that participation would increase throughout the afternoon. “We have the team deployed in different parts of the country, so everybody has been observing and letting us know the feedback of the different constituencies.”

The mission has engaged with political parties, electoral authorities, and other key stakeholders, assessing aspects such as technology, electoral processes, and governance issues. Plata stressed that their role is to support electoral authorities and democracy in Belize, ensuring that elections are conducted fairly and transparently.

She added, “ We have seen a very calm election. We have been seeing. Good turnout. Um, but hopefully that will increase during the afternoon. So we’re looking forward to seeing more people coming out this afternoon. There’s still a couple of hours left in the day, and we do wanna encourage people to come out because it’s important to have as much participation as we can.”

One of the ongoing concerns raised by previous OAS observer missions is electoral redistricting, which has yet to be implemented. Plata confirmed that the issue remains under review and will be included in the preliminary report to be released in the coming days, followed by a comprehensive final report. She said, “ We are reviewing, uh, the present situation of that, and that will be included also in our report. We’ve of course, uh, been asking and, and following up on our prior recommendations, and that will be included also in the report. We will issue a report at the, be at the end of the process, a preliminary report in the coming days and later on a full report. So definitely something that we’ll be looking into and reporting on.”
The mission is also reviewing Belize’s campaign financing regulations, or the lack thereof. Plata noted that Belize currently does not have strong laws governing campaign financing, a concern that has been highlighted in past reports. ”

“ If you do, um, see anybody wearing the, the, the vest and you can reach out to those people and they will have a process to take in the report and consider that as well in the information that we are compiling. It’s interesting that you had mention campaign financing and the fact that in Belize there’s not necessarily any laws that govern how these things are done,” Plata added.

This is the fourth OAS electoral observer mission in Belize.