Belize Police Association election results came in last night, and as predicted, the victory went in a landslide to the incumbents led by Sergeant Jermaine Hyde. His slate had campaigned on a promise of a designated fund to help officers in need of financial assistance as well as the promise of a making land available to police officers.
Hyde topped the polls with 535 votes - meaning almost 90% of the 606 officers who voted supposed him.
But a turnout of only 606 - out of 2,400 police officers - is very underwhelming - and we wondered what such a low turnout might suggest.
And when questioned this evening the victorious sergeant blamed the low numbers on one thing, and one thing only: OMICRON.
Sgt. Jermaine Hyde, President-elect, Police Association
"It was low, we had about six hundred and six persons who came out and voted, out of a possible two thousand, four hundred. So the showing was low but like I said, that was expected because a lot of police officers are presently infected with COVID-19 and due to the COVID-19 restrictions some may not have wanted to come out and vote. So that did play a role in terms of the numbers."
Reporter
"If you would allow me to suggest two alternate reasons why the turnout is so low, the first is that the ComPol mischievously announced the election very late. The second could be that the police force has lost faith in the association. How would you answer these?"
Sgt. Jermaine Hyde
"To say that the ComPol mischievously announced the date late is an opinion. I won't say that, but yes, the election was announced a little bit late but it is the welfare office that announced the date late, not the commissioner. The second, in terms of people losing faith in the association, if you watch the numbers, six hundred and six persons turned out and voted, and out of that six hundred and six police officers that came out and voted, we got about ninety percent. So I am saying that out of those who turned out and voted, they are confident in the association. Like I said, there are a lot of factors that may have hindered people from coming out and vote, but at the end of the day I believe that we still have the confidence of our members. They are still confident in this association central board to vote us again, they did vote us back another term, so I believe they are confident and with that confidence maybe we need to build on it and that is what this central board is intend to do, build on the confident of our members and work for our members and try to provide our best possible service we can in terms on welfare."
Reporter
"That is six hundred members out of 2,000 who should have voted."
Sgt. Jermaine Hyde
"Yes ma'am. like I said they may have been other factors why they did not come out and vote, but I dont believe that it's because there is no confidence in the central board of the association."
The other cops who had substantial showings in the police election were Sergeant Gilbert Martinez with 488 votes and Sergeant William Usher with 485 votes.
President Hyde's administration will serve for a one-year period.
