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Chief Elections Officer Rejects PUP Claim
posted (October 29, 2015)
August warned that if Grant continues with this allegation, he will sue for defamation of character. Now while August can take it as pure political silliness, it's not so easily brushed off for the chief elections officer - whose integrity and conduct have now been publicly questioned. That same integrity is paramount to the management of the entire election, so she today sent Grant a 3 page letter, setting him straight, and making it clear that she didn't instruct any registering officer to sign any blank proxy form. She told Courtney Weatherburne that all the relevant information was filled out on the form and that there was nothing illegal or questionable about her actions.

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer
"I was in a meeting when I was call. One of the senior officers came into the meeting and she asked for excuse and she mentioned that she had an issue whereby Mr. August had called the office to inquire about a process whereby he is claiming that he went to the Santa Elena office which is responsible for Cayo Central Electoral Division, to put in an application form on behalf of somebody. My understanding was that the elector was there a long with Mr. August and the officer informed me that she had spoken to the acting registering officer at that time and the registering officer told her that she was not going to sign the form. Because the form did not have whereby - usually you have to put in your duties, the duties assigned. It had the stamp, the signature of the commissioner of police on that form. Because I will say at this point that - it's a police officer and we won't divulge any names for security purposes and whoever persons choose to vote, that is their right. Whoever they take in to accompany them or whatever the case might be - that is the person right as well and I will say that the senior officer from here informed me that she asked the acting registering officer to sign the form. Because if it did not have the duties, you know it's a police officer because the commissioner of police had already signed and also the commissioner of police did not put the date that he signed. So for those two things, it is something that we would never turn somebody back. I will go as far as saying that many times when we received the proxy forms, people put wrong address, the put wrong polling area and we rectify those things when they come to us."

"Those things are things that we normally do. We would even assists persons, in terms of okay, this is your polling station. Because many times people just don't know. So that is what we are here for as public officers. We are not here to turn persons around to say well you need to go to another office. So for those two things; the important things were the signature of the elector was there and all the information was filled out, it had the stamp and signature for the person authorized to sign the application forms. So it was in order. I will categorically state that I had not given approval to any of my staff members, including registering officers and senior officers to sign any blank proxy forms on my behalf. Absolutely none."

But the PUP isn't letting up on Tamai. Former Chief Elections Officer and now current secretary General of the PUP, Myrtle Palacio also sent Tamai a letter yesterday demanding that the opposition be allowed to inspect the proxy register. The latter warns, quote, "we expect a definitive response by close of business today. Should we not have a definitive response…we shall assume that our request is being denied…any denial of our request…will result in legal action being taken against you without further notice," end quote.

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