On New Years' Eve, 7News told you about the rejected petition which the People's United Party made to recall Cayo North East Representative Elvin Penner.
The disgraced former minister of state, although being thoroughly condemned by the Opposition, the media and civil society, has not faced any criminal charges for allegedly facilitating an international fugitive. More than that, he is an area representative and a sitting member of the House of Representatives in good standing; he also enjoys additional perks like a salary over a hundred thousand dollars, his government vehicle, and health insurance.
So, with this hurdle of the failed petition in the rear view, he is one step closer to distancing himself from the immigration scandal. With those things in mind, we spoke with Julius Espat, the Deputy Leader who has been there with caretaker Orlando Habet every step of the way. He told us yesterday that the party expected that first attempt to fail, no matter how hard they tried:
Hon. Julius Espat - Representative, Cayo South
"It is a national executive decision, so the Party Leader has requested a national executive meeting to go over the details. Presently we have been informed as to the detail as to why they didn't accept it which is something that we expected by the way. So now we will have the legal advisor and his team gives us their advice as to how we should move forward and then a decision will be made at the national executive."
"It's a sad situation for Belize. It doesn't really matter what the final outcome is. It's a sad situation when people are putting their bets that it wouldn't have happened and it didn't happen. We are sure of what we did. We are sure of the names we collected, we are sure that they match on the list. Yes, some of them don't have signatures because people can't read and write in certain cases. We are aware that certain people can't read and write are the ones that comes from Melchor that can vote in a general election, but all of a sudden, they are not eligible for this process and that show you where the errors lies. From the beginning I've been saying, we have to test the systems that we have in place to make sure if they are there to fool us or they are there to work for us."
The Chief Elections Officer was unavailable for comment today.
Espat told us that one of the difficulties they face is that whenever the Opposition Party heads efforts like this, no matter what the significance is, citizens assume that they are only mobilize for political gain, and not on principles.
Email
Print