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Election Officer Assaulted
Fri, October 9, 2015
An election officer from the Benque Viejo Office of the Elections and Boundaries was assaulted last night while she was working late.

Now, viewers are very aware that the General Elections are only 25 days away, and since this is the fourth one for 2015, the Elections & Boundaries Department is once again under pressure to make sure that the process goes off without a hitch.

So, right now, all the public officers within the department are working overtime, some remaining activated for 16-hour days on average. They are engaged in that kind of feverish activity to get every single detail right, because if an officer makes one error, it could cause an election petition to end up at the Supreme Court.

Against that backdrop, fanatics of one of the political parties assaulted an officer in Benque. Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai shared the disturbing details of the incident with us this morning:

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"i was informed last night that one of my officers was assaulted actually at our Benque Viejo registration office which is responsible for Cayo West`. The office informed me that while she was working at the office, because as you all will know we are in election period and I will say all Elections and Boundaries offices countrywide, all staff are working beyond normal working hours. That is what is required of us anytime an election is being called. As persons know we have to make the election machinery work."

"She heard a knock on the door, because the door was closed, the gate was closed. The person open the gates went into the compound and knock on the door and because at this point in time we know what is happening, we have police officers at our offices and also patrolling."

"She thought that when she heard the knock she mentioned to me that she thought that it was the police officer patrolling. Because even though we have an officer stationed there, they still patrolled the area just to check on them and it was at that point when she was confronted by someone from one of the political offices stating that she is a candidate and she wants to know what the officer is doing at that office. My officer explained to me that she told the person that she was there working. We are not open to the public and I will tell you if we were open to the public, then nobody would have had to even knock on any door. It was through a burglar bar door that she spoke to the person."

"She was aware that she was being recorded. At that point in time, the officer was actually embarrassed or wondering why am I being questioned. She went back to her desk and she continued with her work. That was about 9pm. About 10pm, she reported that she attempted to leave the office along with one of the police officers. The police officer who was stationed there and at that point it was when she came outside to lock the office - when she was leaving that she saw a group of persons outside and those persons, one of them assaulted her. She was hit in the face."

According to Tamai, this female elections officer has made an official police complaint about the assault.

This morning, we also got a tip that the police and the BDF explosives expert had to respond to a report that a suspected grenade was thrown at the Elections and Boundaries Office on Lumber Yard Street. Fortunately, it turns out that it was pure mischief making, and some sort of prank, but the Chief Elections Officer told us that her officers don't find it funny. Here's how she explained what she suspects is behind this type of hostility:

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"And it's very disturbing and I would go far to state that is not the only incident we had at our lumber yard office here in Belize City last night again, the staff heard a noise at about 8pm in the night, when they came outside, they saw eggs being thrown at the door. They took it as nothing. When they got back to the office this morning, it was then that they realized that an object was thrown as well. We know that we have persons or cameras that recorded whatever happened. The police went in. They look at the situation, actually services are temporarily postponed at present. Because as you know they had to cordon off the area and to look into this incident because the police are saying that it's a suspected grenade that was thrown at one of our offices."

Daniel Ortiz
"What in your mind or to your best information is the cause of all this hostility? Do they suspect that your officers are up to no good with this election?"

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"I would tell you I really don't know. Because I don't see any reason why anybody should suspect anything is happening. We have a process whereby the registers, people go in to registered - you have a process for objections for appeals, you have a court system in place. That's where the list is finalize, when the magistrate decides if a name remained or not. So at this point there should be no reason why anybody should have any queries any concerns, whatever the case might be and I am hoping that we will put a stop to this immediately, because it cannot continue. It's not about the Election and Boundaries Department, it's about the people of Belize. We are only doing the job that is required of us."

Police sources tell us that the object that was thrown at the Lumber Yard Street office was a confetti bomb - the kind of thing used at weddings or parties.

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