Port Loyola Standard Bearer protests elections and boundaries department

There are thousands of voters in Port Loyola.  It’s one of the largest constituencies in Belize City and every vote counts for P.U.P.’s Gilroy Usher and U.D.P.’s incumbent Anthony Boots Martinez. Boots won the division hands down in the last elections and this morning, the P.U.P. standard bearer, flanked by supporters, took on the Elections and Boundaries Department claiming there is fraudulent transfer of voters who don’t live in the division. News Five’s Jose Sanchez reports.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

A band of thirty protested on the compound of the Complex building on Mahogany Street. They chanted against the Elections and Boundaries Department who they say allowed non-residents of Port Loyola to be on the voters list. They were there in support of P.U.P. Port Loyola Standard bearer Gilroy Usher.

Gilroy Usher Sr.

Gilroy Usher Sr., P.U.P. Standard Bearer, Port Loyola

“I’m objecting to the fraudulent transfer of over a hundred persons in Port Loyola for the period July eleventh to august tenth. Now this fraudulent transfer took place as a result of instructions given by Belmopan to the Elections and Boundaries Department because in doing that, the Elections and Boundaries Department did a number of things to prevent us from objecting to the fraudulent persons that should not be on the voting list in Port Loyola. First thing that they did; we sent in the objection to over a hundred persons that we know for a fact don’t live in Port Loyola—that is area 20, 22 and 22A. What they did is that they is that they only printed the notice in the Amandala for August twenty-first for area 22A. They did not include any objections for Area 20 and 22. Thus when we went to court, the magistrate said that those objections would not be allowed because the following weekend in the Guardian for September the fourth, then they printed the other objections for Area 20 and Area 22. But by that time, the deadline had already passed. And the election and boundaries department is staffed with competent people who know what should be done that these deadlines are met. So that was a deliberate attempt that was done to include people on the voting list in Port Loyola. The second thing that was done was that after we got the supplementary list and we noticed that so many persons were included, we brought it to their attention—and a result of shame on the part of Belmopan and people at the elections and boundaries department—they went out and they did a check and came up with these names who they definitely do not belong on the supplementary list for Port Loyola, but this is after the fact that the very elections and boundaries department included those persons on the voters list for August the tenth. So what they did; they know that they should have printed these names as people who are objected to, but instead they printed it as disqualified. And they know that they don’t have the authority to disqualify anybody off the voters list. So the magistrate said that as a result of the notice that was printed wrongfully in our minds; deliberately on instructions from Belmopan—all these names have been included on the voters list for Port Loyola and again that is a deliberate attempt that was done to pad the voters list in favor of my opponent, Boots Martinez.”

Gilroy Usher Jr.

According to Alberto August, Chairman of the of the Elections and Boundaries Committee, the process, as established by the Representation of the People’s Act, is for Usher to object to the names being added to the list and to present the evidence to support the allegation for the court to make the final determination. And the court has made its determination.

Gilroy Usher Jr., Protestor

“We objected to a hundred in total, but they only printed thirty in the Amandala within the qualified time. So the other seventy that they printed, they printed it late so we were unable to object to the seventy so they automatically went on the list without any objection even though they went and checked themselves and found that these seventy people do not live at this said address. But there is nothing that we can do about it. So what we are doing now is just bringing awareness to the situation of what is happening because another list is scheduled to come out and we do not want the same mistake that they did with this one or the deliberate act that they did with this one to get on the list to prevent us from getting the people off the list, we don’t want them to do that again.”

There are over four thousand registered voters in Port Loyola and no doubt there will be more battles before the general elections. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.

The Chairman of the Elections & Boundaries Commission also said new voters are added to the list by way of continuous “New” registration. In the process, voters must present necessary documentation and information, which is to be verified by the registering officer. The annual transfer is held between July first and August thirty-first when electors apply for transfer from one constituency to another.  News Five called Boots Martinez to respond to the allegation of the padding of the voter’s list but he was unavailable for comment.