Montejo wins PUP nomination in Collet
It was one of the most anticipated and bitterly contested conventions of the current political season. News 5’s Jose Sanchez sought out the winners and losers on the morning after.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
The results are official and Remijio Montejo will once again bear the PUP standard in Collet. But the race was not without controversy. Defeated aspirant Raymond Cox claims that at least four hundred of his supporters were prevented from voting.
Raymond Cox, Defeated Candidate
“When we sent in our list on Wednesday, the committee that sat down and looked at it were saying these people are not PUP’s, they were not on Mr. Montejo’s list and we sent in too much people, so they just discarded it without going through the exercise. They should have called in the three candidates and let us sit down and literally argue why each and every single voter on our list should have voted. But they didn’t do that. So we were just left with “oh we won’t accept any of your people,” so the PUP’s on our list were not allowed to vote and that happened yesterday. Now the list that Mr. Montejo sent in were more opposition UDP supporters than PUP supporters. So the real PUP that were on our list weren’t allowed to vote.”
While Cox cries foul, Montejo says that the fault does not lie with him but with the other candidates.
Remijio Montejo, Area Rep., Collet Division
“What happened was that there was intimidation. Both Marshall camp and Cox camp made a lot of scandal out there. They frightened the voters. They frightened the real PUP voters, who did not come because they were intimidated. That is my contention and I can prove it.”
Jose Sanchez
“There has been some complaints from Mr. Cox, he says that the people he put on the list were not allowed to vote. How do you respond to that?”
Remijio Montejo
“That is not true. The Collet Division had a list of one thousand, two hundred voters that was presented by us and by Mr. Marshall. Mr. Cox did not make a list, and that’s why his supporters were not on the list and it was his duty to put them on his list, so he let down his own supporters.”
Cox says that his campaign team and committee members such as Deon Pitter, were barred from voting even though they are undisputed members of the same party.
Deon Pitter, Committee Member, Cox for Collet
“The amount of people that voted yesterday was about four hundred and sixty eight people. Collet have an amount of people that was about three thousand, that’s not even ten percent of the people that voted yesterday. You have people who got there and their names were already scratched and they have already voted. They have cards with different names on them from what they used yesterday. And that is from Mr. Montejo’s camp, because he is the power there. Mr. Marshall and Mr. Cox have no power there.”
Jose Sanchez
“Were you allowed to vote?”
Deon Pitter
“No, I wasn’t allowed to vote.”
Jose Sanchez
“As far as you are concerned, you are the winner of the convention?”
Remijio Montejo
“Yes. I am the winner, and I will stay the winner. What I have to do now is to heal now. I know conventions are decisive, family go against one another, that is expected. It is now for me to heal this division which I will do.”
The battle for Collet may not be over as Cox says that he has filed a complaint in hopes of getting the results thrown out.
Raymond Cox
“Yesterday we have lodged a complaint that we’re going to contest the elections with the party secretariat and the party chairman. We did that yesterday while the voting was still taking place.”
Reporting for News 5, Jose Sanchez.
The final tally showed two hundred and seventy-two votes for Montejo, one hundred and seventeen for Cox and seventy-four for Nunez.
