We've heard anecdotes of electoral fraud in almost every election, but according to the leader of the independent party, the Belize People's Front it was on blatant display during Village Council Elections held on Sunday in Georgeville. And that's what prompted Nancy Marin to write to the Chief Elections Officer, calling it out for what it was and capturing the exchange on video.
Marin spoke with us via Zoom about what was taking place on village council election day, and how she believes it may have interfered with her slate's chances of winning. In this regard, we should note that - in a first - her party's candidates ran a very close race to the PUP in that village:
Nancy Marin, Leader, Belize People's Front:
"It happens at every election, but the fact that they're being so blatant, so bold and open about it now, it's it's really disturbing to see our elections being stolen from us, and nobody's saying anything. But what raised the alarm was on Friday night, the election was on Sunday, but then the previous Friday, the chair lady, the now lady, put out a post saying that villagers can come and apply for their land, two days before the election. So that set off an alarm and I said, you know what? We need to stand up against this thing. It's too much. And so I had a couple of my people out there specifically to take footage and not do anything else but just follow them along. They brought out grocery bags. They were giving people their grocery bags, and they started, boldly just giving money right behind our tent. They had a little spot behind our tent. And so we put somebody to stand right there on the fence inside the yard and take footage of it. And when they realised that we were taking footage, they moved inside to across the street into a black vehicle and were doing it inside the vehicle. And so we went there and stood there and started recording people from there. Then they moved into a local store, and we followed them there. And then they moved into somebody else's house. So they were moving along and we were trailing, picking up footage until I think we frustrate, the representative for the minister that was out there."
"I think that if it was a fair election, we would definitely see more, more winnings by the third party. We would definitely be more encouraged to participate. But they robbed us of our democratic right. We would see definitely more winning from the independents because people are tired. But we also have the group of people that suffer from poverty. And when I say poverty, I don't mean just financial but from a mental poverty. And they don't understand the disservice that they're doing to our nation. And so an uneducated campaign has to happen. We have to educate people and let them understand what you're doing when you sell your vote. You're sending the future of all of us, not just your own."
So far there has been no response from the Chief Elections Officer.
The People's Front garnered 3 seats in that Georgeville village council election - which is a first.
