Last night, we told you about Jorge Emilio Espat. He's the PUP's standard-bearer for the Cayo West constituency who forgot to re-register as a voter in 2018, back when the Elections and Boundaries Department was conducting the country-wide, re-registration process.
That means that on November 11th - while he asks hundreds to vote for him - he cannot vote for himself.
But, that may be only the beginning of his problems. 7news has obtained documentary evidence showing that Espat was born in Guatemala. We have copies of Espat's Guatemalan birth certificate, which shows that he was born in Melchor de Mencos in July of 1973. It lists all the details and the full name of this aspiring politician as Jorge Emilio Espat Hegar.
We contacted Espat about the implications of his Guatemalan birth certificate, and he freely acknowledged that he was born in Melchor. He is convinced that this does not disqualify him from running in the upcoming elections.
But, as we reported back in 2015 when this issue also came up with previous mass party candidates, the constitution is clear that a candidate cannot be elected to the House of Representatives if they have dual nationality.
Belizean law also specifies that Guatemalan citizens cannot be a member of the Belize parliament. You'll also remember that several years ago, Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse has also shared his opinion publicly that according to his research of Guatemalan law, persons born in Guatemala are considered Guatemalan citizens. They would have to go through a lengthy process in Guatemala to renounce that citizenship.
We understand that for Espat to be formally disqualified, however, a challenge would have to be made in court, where it has to be established that he does not meet the nationality requirement in the Belize constitution. But, that's not likely to happen.
We should note that in the last general election, it surfaced that Espat's predecessor for the PUP in Cayo West, Dra. Lesbia Guerra was also born in Guatemala. A UDP Candidate in Cayo South Ralph Huang also had a Guatemalan identity document.
About an hour ago, Espat sent out a prepared statement which says, quote, "I was born, like so many other Belizeans in Benque in the Cayo District, in the small border town of Melchor. Both my parents are Belizean, but at the time of my birth, the medical care in Melchor was superior to that we could access in Belize. I have lived most of my life in Benque, and all my life in Belize...The attacks do not matter, except to convince me that I made the right decision to serve my people." End quote.
