P.U.P. Condemns Municipal Elections Procedure

Municipal Elections are exactly one week away, and while the candidates get in their last days of campaigning, Party officials are busy ensuring that the election process is fair and transparent across the Board. And according to the People’s United Party, at least in Belize City it’s not. The P.U.P. sent off a letter to Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai berating her. Secretary-General Myrtle Palacio claims in that letter that Tamai had committed to consultation on location of polling stations and the manner in which ballot boxes would be counting. But there was none, says Palacio, and that decision was made solely by the Elections and boundaries Department. The P.U.P. has also raised strong objection to the declaration that all ballot boxes in Belize City will be counted simultaneously. According to Palacio, the law does not allow for the Returning Officer to delegate his responsibilities to counting clerks, and he would have to do so if all boxes, eighty-five of them…are counted simultaneously. In addition, the P.U.P. expressed concern over the space and privacy required for such an undertaking, and also the personnel which would be required to get it done. In closing, the P.U.P. calls on Tamai to revoke the decision to count boxes simultaneously, since it is against the law, and asks her to instead do it in a manner which is fair, transparent, accountable and legal.