“Quarantine is like prison but at least we were allowed to vote”

“Being in quarantine is like being in prison but at least we were allowed to vote,” said a woman who has been in mandatory state quarantine for a week and who cast her vote at a mobile polling station on May 25. The people who had been brought to Suriname on a repatriation flight were picked up by a bus from the National Army before being brought to the mobile polling station in groups of ten people. Upon arrival they were told to follow the instructions and to keep a safe distance from each other while they stood in line at the mobile polling station that was located in front of the Zorghotel along the Anton Dragtenweg. These voters were required to keep their surgical mask on and to wash their hands upon their arrival at the mobile polling station. “They take good care of us and we have nothing to complain about but being in quarantine is not pleasant. We were happy about the fact that we were given the opportunity to go outside today because of the elections. We are being watched closely and we know why that it necessary but we are bored because there is nothing for us to do at the quarantine facility. We got to meet other people and we also got to walk outside in the garden of the hotel for a short time but at least there was more space. Now we have to go back and hopefully we will get to go home next week when it becomes evident that we are healthy,” the woman told Times of Suriname.