Village Council Elections are ongoing but almost 3 weeks after the vote in Crique Sarco, the chairman still hasn't been sworn in. According to the Elections and Boundaries Department's website, John Bo was elected with 77 out of 143 votes. But the alcaldes of the village are calling the elections illegitimate since - as they explained in a letter to the E&B Commission - the voter's list contains names of people that don't live in the village. Specifically, there are a group of voters that have their address listed as "Temash River," but as the letter explains, there is no settlement near the river in Crique Sarco. The alcaldes are accusing those villagers of actually living in Barra Sarstoon, a Guatemalan Village.
However, Bo maintains that these names have been on the voter's list in previous elections, and his win is legitimate. He spoke to us about his concerns via phone.
John Bo, Chairman-Elect, Crique Sarco
"To my understanding, the first and the second alcalde formally wrote a letter to elections and boundaries and further, on yesterday's date, they posting another thing on Facebook, they even sent a copy to the prime minister of Belize, Johnny Briceno, and the tension in this village council election is due to the fact that they have people living at the Temash Bar Mouth, they have a few people living there who are on the voter's list that came to vote for me. They came here on Election Day, 8 of them came to vote in my favor. That is the reason these people, it's burning them, especially the alcalde and the second alcalde."
"They went further when they posted another thing on Facebook demanding to the government of Belize that they should throw away the election that happened last month the 25th of May, should be thrown away because it seems it doesn't work at all. So also the 25 people names from this same area from the Bar Temash are on the voter's list should be withdrawn from the voter's list. So now and also they demand to the government that another date should be selected for another by-election."
"If I lost and they won, I wouldn't bothered going through all of these things, a win is a win. So my question now to these Alcaldes, what is the issue, what is the reason why now they are stopping me now for me to not do my swearing-in? What is behind it because it's official from Elections and Boundaries, I don't see why they are doing these things."
We reached out to the Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai about this matter and she said, quote, "The matter of the Challenge is presently with the Elections and Boundaries Commission. The Commission is presently reviewing the matter after which a decision will be taken and communicated to the Alcalde who is making the challenge. The Chairperson who won also wrote, disputing what the Alcalde is stating. I can say though that the voter's list used includes the same traditional areas used for all previous village council elections." End quote.
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