BELIZE CITY–During a press conference yesterday, Tuesday, the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP)’s party chairman, secretary general and legal advisor suggested that the United Democratic Party (UDP) was trying to sway the outcome of the upcoming Cayo North by-election through the transfer of Jerrylyn Bruce, the senior registering officer from the Cayo North Elections and Boundaries Branch, who, the PUP alleged, refused to facilitate UDP chairman, Alberto August, with the election binders containing the personal information of the voters from Cayo North.
The Opposition claimed that the transfer, which had happened just days before the election, was done as a consequence of that supposed occurrence; however, August has categorically denied having any contact whatsoever with Bruce, and asserted that he has no interest in the binders because he uses what is publicly available: the voters list.
Today, Chief Elections Officer, Josephine Tamai, spoke about the seemingly abrupt re-assignment of Ms. Bruce with the media, explaining that the situation was misinterpreted by the PUP, and that Bruce was actually re-assigned to a different registration office in Cayo North, and not transferred, as was previously thought.
She said, “I want to clarify, it’s not a transfer, it’s a reassignment, and some people confuse transfers with reassignments. Ms. Bruce has been reassigned, and for those persons who are familiar with the Belize Constitution, Public Service Regulations 2014, which came into effect the first of October, for a station: the definition of station is the judicial district, so it’s not a transfer. I must clarify; it’s a reassignment, so she’s now responsible for a different registration office. Similar to Belize City, we have several offices and I have the authority to move those officers around based on the work load and whatever the situation might be.”
We were unable to find out the name of the registering officer that has since replaced Bruce.
As to the allegation that a high ranking UDP representative was trying to remove the election binder from the office, Tamai said she had no knowledge about that allegation, and went on to explain the procedure of procuring the binders.
“That is not so because like I mentioned, I had no knowledge of anything with any binder. In terms of the election itself, yes, we as the Elections and Boundaries Department, what we do, we oversee the process on that day. It’s not the Election and Boundaries staff that conducts the election. It’s the public officers who are appointed by the commission. In terms of the binders, [those] are what we classify as record cards that have all the information for electors. It has their photograph, their full name, their date of birth, their address, their signature, the date they came in, and whatever rectification they made throughout the entire time they have been registered. It has all the information in terms of persons.
“I will go further to say if for any reason – and the political parties are aware of the People’s Act, which specifies if that at any point in time, they want to peruse those binders, all they need to do is write a letter to myself and get approval to peruse the binders with the supervision of an officer I will assign to do that. Political parties are allowed to peruse and see what are in those binders, but again with supervision from our officers,” she clarified.
So why did the reassignment happen if it was not politically motivated, as the PUP alleged? According to Tamai, it was carried out because she had to make an administrative decision.
She said, “As the Chief Elections Officer and the person responsible for the Elections and Boundaries Department, I have a crucial role to ensure that my officers perform at the highest level, especially during this time. I know that some people have been saying, ‘well, it’s very close to election’, but what I want to assure the public is that the reason why this reassignment was done during this critical time is to ensure we have free and fair elections, and also for me to ensure that we have adequate and competent persons in place to carry out this election.”
“That was an administrative decision that had to be taken. The officer was written to for various things that were being done at the time. Ms. Bruce has to be out of the office for various reasons, and at this critical time – as I said – I need to ensure I have somebody there who will be able to be at the office at all times to ensure the work is being carried out”, she noted.
The by-election in Cayo North is scheduled for Monday, January 5.
