Last night, we showed you our teleconference interview which Sergio Chuc, the re-elected President of the Football Federation of Belize.
We asked him about the controversy which played out at the congress held by the Premier League of Belize. Insiders tell us that on Saturday, June 20th, 2020, the constituents of the PLB showed up to the Marion Jones Sporting Complex for an election of a new executive to manage the league. We are informed that there was some sort of disagreement between the FFB's Electoral Committee, which was to supervise the elections, and the incumbent PLB President about who should or shouldn't be allowed to vote. That dispute ultimately led to the Electoral Committee walking out of the elections, which then proceeded without their stamp of approval.
9 days later, the FFB sent out a press release supporting the results of those elections. In that statement, the FFB said, quote, "The Executive Committee recognizes the duly elected Executive Committee of the PLB and informs that any FFB member having any concern about the decision can seek redress through the FFB Judicial Committees."
Chuc's opponents quickly seized on the opportunity to accuse him and his executive of only supporting the results because it was politically convenient.
Opponents of the PLB President-elect challenged the election results at the FFB's Election Appeal Committee, which later ruled that the elections were null and void.
So, how did Chuc and his executive handle this matter? That's what we asked him yesterday:
Sergio Chuc - Re-elected President, FFB
"The electoral committee walked out of the PLB Congress and said that they were not going to validate those elections. When I read up the PLB statutes, the PLB is one of 8 members of the federation, the only one has not completed their election. Their statutes are the only one out of the Federation new states and the 7 other members are all in sync. The PLB has not redone their statutes."
"The PLB statutes talk nothing about any electoral committee having to supervise their election. My interpretation of that is that if the electoral committee of the FFB walked out of it, and their statutes are saying that it just needed to be supervised by an independent body - not an electoral committee - then I could have accepted those results. The independent body that supervised those elections were a Justice of the Peace, 2 members of the Elections and Boundaries Commission, and a member of the National Sports Council. So, in my mind, I believed I could have satisfactorily accepted the results. The member you spoke about challenged those results, and as I said, we have independent judicial bodies now. So, they challenged those results at the Appeals Committee, and the Appeals Committee basically ruled against the PLB, and basically against me, saying that I was wrong in accepting those results, and they have to go back into another election. But, the appeal committee also made 2 recommendations. It said before you go into those elections, you must ask your member to re-do their statutes, so they are in line with the Federation's statutes. And then you go into the election."
As you heard, authority over the league has been handed over to the previous PLB executive, which was in charge before the June 20th Elections.
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