Landy Habet; he lost by 17 votes and says he is ready for a bye-election

Landy Habet

P.U.P. Leader Francis Fonseca has given disgraced former Minister of State and Cayo Northeast Area Representative Elvin Penner five days to resign. If Penner does not do so, then the P.U.P. will push to get him recalled. But tonight, there are reports that Penner has been hospitalized in Belize City suffering from hypertension presumably occasioned by the public pressure over the passport scandal.  In 2012 Penner won the hotly contested seat by only seventeen votes after conducting a mass registration of immigrants just weeks before elections. His opponent, the P.U.P.’s Landy Habet, had always contended that the election was stolen and not won. So for Habet, a recall would be a heaven-sent opportunity for vindication. So suffice to say he’s more than ready to hit the ground running to get Penner out. He says getting the required signatures to trigger a recall will not be a problem.

Via Phone: Landy Habet, P.U.P. Political Officer, Cayo Northeast

“We have been organizing since day one after we got information about Elvin Penner and the passport scandal. We informed all our people because not all of our people are informed because some of them don’t have access to television. But it was our concern and we made sure that they were all informed about what was happening. And as the media started to pick up information and put it on the news we also kept them informed and updated. Our committee for Cayo Northeast along with the Western Caucus has been organizing and we will be out in all villages collecting signatures from people who are willing to sign the petition for a recall. On Sunday we will be at the Falcon Field in San Ignacio where we’ll be doing the same activity for the people from polling area ninety-two. At the same time we will have a rally which is actually an awareness rally, an anti-Penner rally so that the people will be informed and we will collect the signatures we need to trigger the recall mechanism.”

Reporter

“Do you anticipate any problem in getting the sixteen hundred signatures that are needed?”

Via Phone: Landy Habet

“Certainly not! The people are now informed and they are calling that they are willing to come out and sign the document. We have been informed that even our opposition…people who are former supporters of Elvin Pennerare calling and they are also willing to sign.”

Reporter

“The last time we tried a referendum there was a problem with the signatures where many of the signatures were turned back. Are you looking at the collection of these signatures with a view to that and are you taking extra care to ensure that all ‘I’s are dotted and all ‘T’s are crossed?”

Via Phone: Landy Habet

“We certainly are. We consulted with some people who were involved in that referendum with Oceana. Unfortunately due to some technicality they were turned down. We will be collecting more than the number of signatures that we need and we will be ensuring that we have the evidence to show that these people are the persons who are signing and to ensure that we do not make the same mistakes…certainly we learn by the people’s mistakes and we are confident that everything will go well.”

Habet says that he is confident that they will have the necessary amount of signatures, and more, by the end of next week.