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Are Voters Being Paid To March?
posted (October 16, 2015)
But today the leader of the opposition made an emphatic claim that the UDP used public funds to bankroll their campaign and nomination day parade. Here's what he said - followed by the responses from the Ministers of Housing and Finance whom he accuses:..

Francis Fonseca, PUP Candidate - Freetown
"I am very concern of many serious reports I have gotten over the last 24 hours of finance officers being forced to pay people to march today through the Smart Stream system and I would certainly urge the media to look into that matter. I have gotten this from credible people who work in these ministries who are being force to pay people to march today. For example the Ministry of Housing $150 through the Smart Stream system. This is on top of very serious allegations that $150,000 of Petrocaribe funds have been channel to UDP candidates over the last two weeks - each candidate. This is very serious. We have to look into it. It's a serious matter. At this point they are allegations, but they are credible allegations as far as I am concerned."

Michael Finnegan, UDP Candidate - Mesopotamia
"If I am the minister of housing and I give out grants as small as $50, as big as $5,000, $150, $200 etc. and I do that in terms of helping the people and they want to come out and support me. That is their business."

Jules Vasquez
"But is it that you are paying them with....?

Michael Finnegan, UDP Candidate - Mesopotamia
"Of course not. That would be illegal for me to do. That wouldn't be proper. That would be improper."

Jules Vasquez
"You give them the money as housing grants?"

Michael Finnegan, UDP Candidate - Mesopotamia
"And if they want to come and support me, that's their business. But I can't give anybody government money to come out here and support me. They come if they want. On Election Day, it's the same thing. They come out and vote for me if they want. But I cannot give them housing grant in order to vote for me. That would be improper Jules. The Leader of the Opposition should be smarter man. He has a law degree. I don't have any. I don't have a primary school leaving certificate hanging on my wall, but the Leader of the Opposition is maybe dunce. He is not an option."

Jules Vasquez
"The PUP is alleging again, that Petrocaribe funds have been made available $150,000 each to each representative for campaign spending and that what we are seeing, this sort of thing is a demonstration of that."

Dean Barrow, UDP Party Leader
"Again Jules, that charge has been leveled certainly since the bi-election in January that started the momentum and continued for the municipal elections and for the last bi-election in July. It obviously is not working and I think that really while I supposed it to be expected - they got to say something. Perhaps they ought to wheel and come again and try something else."

And while Finnegan and Fonseca differed greatly on that issue - they did have one thing in common today, they both got a little misty eyed during nomination - stay tuned to hear why later on in the news.

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