7 News Belize

PUP Says Re-Registration Now!
posted (February 13, 2017)
One other topic that the Opposition Leader brought up at today's press conference was the pending re-registration of the over 198 thousand voters. It's been over 20 years since the country's last one, and the Government has indicated that it won't happen until after the Municipal Elections next year.

That's something that the Opposition has loudly objected to, since a re-registration exercise is due in July of this year. But the Elections and Boundaries Commission has decided to first do a re-districting of the 31 electoral divisions countrywide. Today, Briceño used this opportunity, which was his first public appearance since the matter came up, to explain why the party is so insistent. He went back to the testimony of Former Immigration Director Ruth Meighan, who agreed that in the run up to the 2012 General Elections, there was nationality fraud, which likely transferred over to voter fraud. The Auditor General's report notes that there were 2,110 persons who got nationality in that 4-month rush, and she wanted to look into their applications to ensure that they truly qualified, but her audit team was unable to do so.

Today, Briceño pointed out that some of those voters could have determined the very close margins in Cayo Northeast and Cayo Central. Here's how he explained it:

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"To date, Belizeans are waiting to see what actions the Prime Minister will take in response to the revelation of more than 2,000 nationalities certificates that were issued just before the 2012 elections. We got a copy of the 2,000 plus names and we did a quick analysis on that. We have only managed to gone through 1,371 names so far. But there are 2 divisions that we want to bring to your attention: in Cayo Northeast, we lost by 17 votes. Of the 1,371 people that were naturalized during that short period - that 4 month period, we have found out 71 names already that voted in that election in Cayo Northeast. When Cayo Northeast we lost by 17 votes."

"When you look also at Cayo Central, we lost Cayo Central by 44 votes. Of the 1,371 names that we've gone through so far, we have found out that they had 66 of those questionable nationalities registered and voted in that election. So if those 66 persons did not vote, the People's United Party would have been in government right now."

"This is an illegitimate government and that is why we are saying along with the Teachers Union that there must be re-registration before."

Reporter
"Ina recent interview with BNTU's President Luke Palacio, he basically said that both political parties are playing politics over the re-registration."

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"Well I don't know he will say that we are playing politics with it, when we have been demanding for re-registration. We stand with them that we believe that there must be re-registration before re-districting."

We note that there would still be a level of uncertainty on what role these voters played, if it is determined that they all did not qualify for nationality, since only they can say for certain who they voted for.

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