Yesterday, we told you about the elections for the Central Board of Police Association. It's an annual process where police officers at the rank of sergeant or below select fellow officers to represent them in matters of police welfare. 838 officers, or 38.4% of the eligible voters participated and selected between 2 slates.
The litigious Police Corporal, Eldon Arzu led one slate and Sergeant Jermaine Hyde led the other.
Well, after all the votes were tabulated, Arzu's team lost soundly to the the other team, in some cases by a margin of almost two to one.
This evening, Hyde and another member of his slate granted the press an interview discussing the elections. Here's what he had to say:
Sgt. Jermaine Hype - Elected Board Member, Police Assoc. "The elections took place, police all across the country came out at the different formation and voted and they let their voices be heard, they voted for my slate and everyone from our slate we were the top candidates in terms of the number of votes that was received and we were grateful for that, I want to say thanks to all the police officers who came out and participated in the process yesterday."
Reporter "The voting is that election quite low, not even 50%. Is this an indication that perhaps the membership of the Belize Police Department doesn't see value in the association or is that maybe the proper organization or things weren't put in place for officers to vote and let their voices be heard in terms of who represent them."
Sgt. Jermaine Hype "I wouldn't say that the police officers are not interested, they may have been a lot of factors that may have made the turnout low. For instance, I know you guys know that we have some police officers who are in quarantine, who may not have been able to come out and vote. Then in the north as you know, there is a lockdown, a lot of these police officers live in villages and finding their way to vote at the different and yes there is voting station at every formation but to reach those stations maybe for some of them is an hour drive. So, there is a lot of factors that may have hindered police officers from coming out and voting yesterday but I won't say that they are not interested. I think one of the main concern of police officers, one of those things that are pressing in terms of issue is police officers who are sick, they need medical attention and they are not there financially to face these medical expenses, so then as a police association we try to find ways to deal with this issue and one of the things I can say, I would like to thank the business community who is always there supporting the police association in our endeavours to find that finance to help these police officers. That is our job, also when it comes to welfare, to find somewhere we might not be able to help them cover all the expenses when it comes to their medical expenses, but we try our best to help them."
Correction, Jermaine Hyde is not a constable, he is a Sergeant.
As we understand it, these candidates will decide among themselves who will serve as the Chairman for the entire year of their mandate. Since Hyde is the incumbent Chairman, his colleagues may ask him to serve for a second time.
This afternoon, we reached out to Corporal Eldon Arzu for comment on the outcome of the election and we assured him that the Commissioner had granted him permission to speak to the press.
Arzu declined our request for comment saying that he and his colleagues are in the process of appealing the outcome of the election. They are complaining about how the election was carried out.
Arzu told us, quote, "We had filed a notice of appeal, verbally yesterday, and we did one in writing today to Mr. Calbert Flowers… I understand that the Commissioner gave the permission, but I don't want it to seem like I am bypassing the chain of command at this time. Until somebody in authority would get in contact with me, perhaps Mr. Jones, who is my superior, to give me to go-ahead… then yes, but if that is not done, I don't want to be placed in a [bad] position at this time, since we have a claim pending in regards to this recent election." End quote.
