Thea Garcia-Ramirez Responds to Allegations of Unfair Voting

It’s been over a week now since the P.U.P. held its convention in Corozal Bay to elect a standard bearer for the next General Elections. On Friday, the sitting Area Representative, Elvia Vega-Samos wrote a Facebook post that quickly drew a response from the party’s chairman, Henry Charles Usher, debunking her claims. The most serious of the allegations were that there were Mexican nationals who were allowed to vote, that persons were allowed to vote with just notepads, and that her supporters were denied the chance to cast their ballots. We were not able to reach Usher for a response, but the party’s press release states in part that the procedure for the finalisation of the Voter’s List for the convention was done with the full participation of both candidates and their representatives, and that only registered voters of the Corozal Bay constituency were allowed to vote. The release also advised Vega-Samos and her supporters to cease immediately from making what it calls further baseless and outlandish public statements. Meanwhile, the successful candidate, Thea Garcia-Ramirez, told News Five she had a machinery of about two hundred and fifty persons who campaigned for her. In terms of the allegations that there were Mexican nationals voting for her, Garcia-Ramirez said there was no way that could have happened. She says she reached out today to Vega-Samos, asking for her support, and is awaiting her response. 

 

Thea Garcia-Ramirez, P.U.P. Standard Bearer, Corozal Bay

I will tell you categorically that I have no knowledge of any Mexican nationals that were not on the approved voting list and the voting list. The process is you come in with the voters list, and I think that the cutoff date was June, so anybody that was registered to vote, accepted by Elections and Boundaries, to vote as of June 10^th, was on the first list. And you can’t be on the national on the elections and boundaries this unless you confirmed to certain requirements, one which is being a Belize national or a member of the Commonwealth, a resident, another sorry, not resident, a citizen of the Commonwealth, having resided in Belize for at least a year. So all the requirements have to be met. And then from that list, there was a vetting that vetting was done with the secretariat and both camps. We signed off on that list with the provision that we are human. We make errors. It was a little bit over six thousand five hundred names on the entire voting list for Corozal Bay as of June 10th. And, you we started about eight o’clock at night to vet, after a hard day of campaigning. We are bound to make mistakes. Like I said, we are human, and with that said, there is a provision at all P.U.P. conventions that if on convention day, both parties, there’s only two, there were only two candidates in this case could, agree that the person was indeed a P.U.P. voter that they would be allowed to vote that what that’s, rule number 14. And on that premise, we both signed. I received a message prior to the convention a day or two before that said to me that provision would no longer be available that was the list.  I want to be fair and say that there were voters coming in for both candidates that were not allowed to vote.  I have reached out to Honorable Elvia Vega, Minister of State. I’ve asked her to join my executive. I haven’t received – but I just sent it today, so I haven’t yet received a reply, and asked her to come in. let’s join hands. I think this is a real opportunity to show how women handle both victory and defeat. I think it is a teachable moment. I think it is a moment where we can really show our leadership skills, come together and be able to move forward, as a party, as women of the P.U.P. and women in politics on a whole.”