The Election’s and Boundaries Department, headed by Josephine Tamai held a press conference in which it explained the serial problems which it encountered while vetting the list of persons who signed a petition to trigger a recall of the sitting area representative of the Cayo North East constituency.
The breakdown of the list is as follows: 1665 signatures were accepted, 52 signatures did not match, 52 were not registered in Cayo North East, 52 are not registered at all, 11 had no signatures, 158 signed the petition twice, 12 signed the petition three times all to a total of 2002 which were submitted.
The Chief Election’s Officer explained that they received the list on Thursday November 28th after which they had a month in which to verify it and certify those that were legitimate. Their work was to have been submitted by December 28th but because that day was a Saturday, there are provision in which the verified list can be submitted on the next workday which was on December 30th, and they did. Tamai stated that there were 8 senior public officers at the rank of heads of departments and assistant heads of department who headed the process. Included in those conducting the verification was Genoveva Marin from the Forensics Department, her expertise was required for verification of signatures. Tamai said that there were 61 instances in which thumb prints or an X appeared as signatures. In the instances where the thumb prints could not be made out, the assistance of the police was sought and it was determined that even the police could not make out the prints.
Then there were investigations on three persons who simply could not be found and when the request was made of the PUP, who had submitted the list, there was the run around given that the persons were perpetually indisposed. There were other irregularities found but including instances as has been pointed out earlier where people signed three and four times. There was also one instance where a thumb print was used and the person who is registered categorically denied that she had placed her mark on the petition.
Having now gone through the process of certification, those were presented to the Governor General. The numbers submitted did not meet the 30% threshold to trigger the referendum. Tamai said that under the Recall of Elected representatives Act the list cannot be used again to mount another petition. We now take it that this is the end of this process. As for those persons who did wrong doing, she stated that her investigation will be compiled and forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions. As for the people who presented a sloppy petition list, Tamai said that there is nothing in the Act to find them at fault. We dare suggest that maybe something be done to address this situation which according to George Myvette who was also a part of the process was one which took a tremendous amount of work.
Myvette added that those officers who were empanelled to do the work “treated it with gravity, professionalism, and efficiency.” He commended the Elections and Boundaries department and its staff for running an efficient ship. In concluding the press conference, Tamai stated that there was never any political interference in the process and stated that if the list had been properly vetted there would not have been so many errors. There were things that could have been prevented.
Once again, it appears that the PUP wanted to pull a fast one on the people of Belize. Thankfully there are professionals in the Elections and Boundaries Department who do their work in an above bar manner.
