PUP Orange Walk Central Objects To 109 Names On Provisional List
One hundred and nine, that’s the amount of names that the P.U.P in Orange Walk Central are objecting to on the voter’s provisional list. P.U.P Orange Walk Central Area Representative Honorable John Briceno is represented by attorneys Dickie Bradley and Anthony Sylvester. The objection case is being heard by Magistrate Merlene Moody. But if the Elections and Boundaries Department thought that their job would be easy, then they had another thing coming. Immediately after the case was adjourned for two in the afternoon, we spoke to attorney Dickie Bradley who explained to us what happened during the morning session of the case.
Dickey Bradley- Attorney, Honorable John Briceno
“There has been a secret signing of the statutory instrument to make the period in which persons can scrutinize and make objections to the voters list is actually cut that in half, instead of ten day it is only five days, the third which is Friday was the day set for persons who are raining objections to come to court and to present these information they have but the objectors were contacted to say it is going to be today and it is happening all over the country today in the various magistrate courts, let me start by telling you that in Belmopan some citizens on their own , meaning that they had no legal advice or they did not take attorneys with them, they had objections to over 100 voters, my understanding this morning is that those voters were primarily new citizens who were just recently given their citizens in this country and all of those objections have been thrown out of the window because of a very serious matter that is also unfolding in Orange Walk court today in relation to objections, the law makes it a requirement, the law says that the registering officer, the official from the Elections and Boundaries office, shall publish the list in the gazette and in the newspaper, so whoever is the registering officer here in Orange Walk is required by law to see that the list of those persons who are being objected to is published.
In: 00:12:30 –if the list
Out: 00:12:39- list
Here in Orange Walk the Registering Officer is Soledad Alonso. According to Bradley, when attorneys requested prove that the list of names was published, officers of the Elections and Boundaries were unable to produce any.
Dickey Bradley- Attorney, Honorable John Briceno
“The first step we wanted to ensure it is in place is where is there proof that you have publish the list, is not us to publish it, it is not Honorable Johnny Briceno or his committee or his campaigners, the law uses the word shall. It is them who is to publish the list so we have no proof that the list was published, so if no list was published in Orange Walk then the magistrate will not have any authority to listen to the objectors in order to take persons off from the voters list who do not belong on the voters list, so where we are is that we ask the court that the information to satisfy the court that the list was publish should come from elections office and since elections officer at sitting here in court with all the papers and documents let them tell the court that they have published the list and let them show the court they published the list, it is not for us to come and say your honor, I mean this is a serious matter.
In: 00:14:12- But the Elections and Boundaries are sitting down all morning not saying anything until the magistrate had to put them in the witness stand so that they can tell the court well, what they do is that they sent the list to Belize city and they are the ones supposedly to get it in the gazette and in the newspaper but that is not the law the law doesn’t say to send it to Belize City, the law says that the registering officer shall publish in the gazette and in the local newspaper, I want the citizens of Orange Walk to understand what is happening it is a very serious matter this is no new person who just start to work in the office and don’t know the procedure, if the law says you shall publish it and your office tell you send it to we will get it on the gazette then you shall call them and ask them if they done get it on the gazette send me a copy of the gazette but no come to court today and don’t bring nothing, you are trying to play a serious game in our view, this is serious matter.”
According to Bradley there is strong evidence to prove that most of the people being objected to, do not live on the address they gave.
Dickey Bradley- Attorney, Honorable John Briceno
“There is evidence that a lot of these people if not all of these people have been put in to addresses where the people who live there don’t even know them, in one case the address is a warehouse, is a warehouse when we went and look there is not even a cat or a mattress nobody lives there or say sleep there or work they, the owners say excuse me I don’t know them people, we need to get off the voters list. Anthony has been doing a research on this matter on the constitution of Belize says that for you to have the right to vote you must be a citizen of this country and you must fall under the requirement of the representation of the peoples act, the citizenship is already suspect, why is it suspect? It is highly suspect and we will go so far as to say that in both our view and in the view of other attorneys that we have spoken to, the person whom have been rushed into citizenship in this country, all over this country have not obtain their citizenship in accordance to the constitution, which is the highest law, why we say that, the constitution says, to be a citizen of this blessed nation of ours you must live here, you must reside here for five years continuously, that’s the word in the highest law in the land, continuously mean when I take my lee dory and I tied it to a piece of mangrove it is one rope that go from the boat to the mangrove, that is what continuous mean, you live here for five years, the law in which they put those people to become citizen say you reside here ordinarily, ordinarily is not continuously so those citizenship can be struck down in violation of the constitution. The list is not publish the magistrate cannot hear objections which means all those people will stay on the voters list. This clearly throws light that listen even though sorry to say it but even though some of the public officers are going along with the government and behaving unprofessional, even if they wanted to they cannot physically go and check over 300 person who are being put on the voters list, it just physically can’t do it. This is a form of subverting the democratic process, this is having people who don’t live in Orange Walk Central who going to come on Election Day to vote against honorable Johnny Briceno, this is absolutely unfair, unjust and it is in breach of a democratic principle and the government is a part of that, that’s what they are doing.”
At 2:00pm the court session resumed. This time the Elections and Boundaries office was able to present a newspaper where the names were advertised. It came to no surprise however, that the advertisement was placed on the Guardian Newspaper.
Dickie Bradley- Attorney Honorable John n Briceno
“The magistrate who is a trained attorney at law was satisfied that the proper publication took place although the newspaper where they put it in dated the 5th of February, the newspaper done come out but they dated it the 5th of February so in fact anybody who had the idea that they are going to strike out the list of persons who are on the voters list and will remain on the voters list, in fact what is going to happen is that the magistrate says no the 8th days of February, three days after the newspaper is showing the list of persons on the 8th they will hear the objections to some person. The update is that what happen in Orange Walk today is that the magistrate did not go along with any attempts to try and say I am throwing up the matter they no object against nobody, the magistrate no say that, the magistrate is saying there is a matter and it will be heard on the 8th day of February , so who will think they will throw out thing like what happen in Belmopan and know what is going on in those other areas there that will not happen here.”
Today Orange Walk Central Area Rep Honorable John Briceno once again reiterated that he and the P.U.P are in no way against the new Belizeans.
Honorable John Briceno- Orange Walk Central Area Rep
“We want to make it absolutely clear that we are not against people getting their nationality, many of these people have been living here long enough and they deserve to get their nationality but what we are appealing to them is that ones they get their nationality they no owe no favors to anybody because if they got it there are certain legal requirement that they should have been met, we in the PUP we have always been open to foreigner especially Central American brothers and sisters and welcome them to Belize we have always have that open door policy and as a person I have always tried to reach out to them and trying to assist them in any way we possibly can but what we are objecting to in this case is that many of these people have been manipulated, they are being used and many of them don’t know any better that they are been given false addresses in Orange Walk Central, many of these people do not live in Orange Walk Central and that is what we are against that they are registering in addressees that they do not live, they must live in Orange Walk Central so that they can become a voter in Orange Walk Central.”
While in Orange Walk Central the P.U.P objected to 109 names, Orange Walk South filed 12 objections while Orange Walk East is objecting to 5 names.
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