N.R.P. candidates says party left him high and dry

Broken promises are a staple of electoral politics but our lead story tonight is not about a politician who made unfulfilled pledges to voters. Instead it’s about a candidate who’s suing his party over its failure to financially support his campaign. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports.

Romeo Magana, Suing N.R.P.
“They said for me to receive a million dollars, now imagine, people are calling me dishonest, they are calling me a liar, they’re calling me a thief.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
According to Romeo Magana, in May 2007 Cornelius Dueck and the National Reform Party asked him to run in Corozal Southeast and promised him major compensation.

Romeo Magana
“You’ll be getting three thousand dollars per month salary. You’ll be receiving a new vehicle, probably an Isuzu 2007 for the work in the constituency. You’ll also be getting a full equipped office with a campaign manager and secretary and you’ll also be receiving a million dollars. So I said okay, suppose we do not win the election, what happens to us? He said, you don’t have to worry, because if we don’t win the elections, you’ll still continue receiving your three thousand dollars monthly until five years from now.”

Janelle Chanona
“In a nutshell basically, Mr. Dueck never kept any of his promises to you?”

Romeo Magana
“Never and the end of November came and he said, if you guys want to leave, leave. Just like that. And then I said to him “look” and I tell Mr. Bejerano, you are not dealing with kids, you are dealing with responsible men and I was responsible, I responded based on what you said.”

Magana wasn’t one of the nine candidates the N.R.P. presented last February but Dueck did give the impression money wasn’t an issue.

Cornelius Dueck, Leader, N.R.P. (February 21st, 2007)
“Members from the core group have given quite a bit of their funds for it. We have business people in Belize that help us finance it. I have done quite a bit on my own. I have a savings in different countries that I will bring to Belize eventually and we are not ignorant of the cost. We know that the U.D.P. and the P.U.P. they spend in the area of fifty to a hundred million dollars for an election and we are here to contest them. If elections were to be called today, we would have thirty-one candidates on the field, within a few days.”

The N.R.P. never got its thirty-one candidates but according to Magana’s attorney Oscar Sabido, on December nineteenth the party received official notice that Romeo Magana was claiming damages for “broken promises”.

Romeo Magana
“I’m claiming for them to pay me from May 2007 to March 2008 because they promised to pay me.”

Janelle Chanona
“Did you have that in writing, all those promises they made?”

Romeo Magana
“We had a core committee in Corozal and the core committee was present when they made those promises to us.”

Janelle Chanona
“So you have a verbal contract?”

Romeo Magana
“Yes and we have those people as witnesses and they are willing to testify. Then what I’m really claiming is that I used my vehicle to do their work and now my vehicle has been beaten up. When I told them, they said, don’t worry others are even using horses. But you’ll get your vehicle no worry.”

When we spoke to N.R.P. Campaign Manager Estevan Bejerano this afternoon he denied that he, Cornelius Dueck or the N.R.P. had been notified of Magana’s legal action. Bejerano says while Magana is no longer a standard bearer they still consider him a member of the N.R.P. As to what was promised to the standard bearers, Bejerano told us, “Whatever was said, was said to all the candidates. We never had anything in writing…there was never anything in black and white”. Regarding the money and vehicles, the campaign manager went on to assert that the N.R.P.’s intention was, and still is, to help all their members become financially independent. Bejerano attributes Magana’s complaints to political mischief to discredit the N.R.P. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

Despite Bejerano’s claim that he had never been served notice of Magana’s claim, this evening employees of Sabido & Company confirmed that the document was delivered by messenger to N.R.P. headquarters on the Northern Highway and was later handed to both Dueck and Bejerano.