U.D.P. Challenges Cayo North Voters Transfers  

The United Democratic Party appeared before the Belize City Magistrates Court today to challenge just over sixty voter transfers in the Cayo North constituency. We spoke with U.D.P. Chairman, Michael Peyrefitte who contends that in one case, fifteen persons were registered in a single bedroom apartment. Peyrefitte argues that most of these transfers are from the Belize Rural Central constituency. He says it should be concerning for Belize Rural Central Area Representative Dolores Balderamos-Garcia. He also described it as a desperate move by Cayo North Area Representative Michel Chebat. Ultimately, the challenge was unsuccessful. Peyrefitte told us more.

 

Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.

“Well, it was very simple what was being tried, challenged. You know, July and August, that’s the transfer period. So, if you were once living in one constituency, but you recently moved to another constituency, the law allows you in the months of July and August to transfer to where you now live, right?  But just like first registration, when you transfer, it has to make sense. For example, if you have a one-day rule, the evidence led by our person who led the evidence in one of the situations goes to the host once a week, friends with the chief occupant, then what you have then is that person testifying. That you have a small living room, a small kitchen and one bedroom, but yet between July tenth and August tenth, fifteen people claim to have moved into that property. I mean, that’s just, that doesn’t fly. I mean, that’s ridiculous.  And I know the law says that the law puts no limit on it in terms of as long as the chief occupant says they live there, then, you know, it’s kind of hard for the magistrate to say, well, you know, I don’t accept that because that’s the law, but that is completely and utterly ridiculous. And  I hope the court would have made  the chief occupant and the registering officer come under oath and testify that when she, as a registering officer went to check  to see that these people actually live there, that she found them there, that she found evidence that they lived there, and we believe that she could not have said that, because then there’s no way that 15 people could live in some of these places. And then they, it felt to us like it was never going to reach that stage, because shockingly, amazingly, the magistrate allowed a no case submission in a civil matter. What should have happened in our view since in a civil matter, while the burden was on us, it’s a balance of probabilities. You hear our side. And then the registering officer and the people who were being objected to would come into court and testify on their side of the story. It didn’t even reach to where the registering officer had to explain how it is that she registered these people.”