128 thousand and two votes were cast in Wednesday's elections, but it would have been one more if Marilee Flowers hadn't been disenfranchised.
She showed up at the polling station early to vote only to find that her registration had been transferred to Hope Creek village in the Dangriga constituency. She says she doesn't even know where that is.
And she didn't find out until she went to cast her vote- and found that she was not on the list. She said she didn't give any authorization to be transferred and she has no idea how this happened. Flowers spoke to us via telephone today.
Voice of: Marilee Flowers, Wasn't Allowed To Vote
"So he goes back in and he looks and says here you are but you are listed in Hope Creek. I laughed because I was like, sir, I could be on the road, passing that place and I cannot identify where Hope Creek is so how am I listed in a totally different constituency than the one I had registered in. And he says well did you transfer? I said no. and then he proceeded to tell me, I'm not sure but I'll make some calls and see what happens. We stand outside for about 5 more minutes and all he tells me is that it was an error that had been made at the elections and boundaries department and I was like how was the mistake made? I didn't go in, I was not informed, I had been transferred, I never asked to be transferred, I never signed a document, giving authority to anybody to transfer me so how is it that my information can just be shifted around whenever they feel like it by whosoever feels like it? They're just like, I can't do anything, you can't vote if you don't go to Hope Creek then your ballot will not be casted."
"I didn't vote, I didn't get to vote so my right to vote within my constituency for whoever political party I wanted to vote for was taken away from me. I had no say in the matter. My constitutional right was removed and I as a citizen of this country, I'm entitled to vote whenever there is an election as long as I had registered."
"It shows you the blatant negligence that the elections and boundaries department has and that they're upholding because after I shared that post and I thought it was a funny little story, I shared it on my WhatsApp, one of my friends said share it on Facebook, I shared it on Facebook, so many people commented and shared it and said listen, you're not the first one and you're probably not going to be the last but the point is, I should be the last person, it should not be happening, over and over, and over. And people are like, it happened to me last general elections, it happened to me with the municipal elections, it happened to me with village council elections. So it's showing you that this is happening across the country and there's nothing being done because nobody wants to be the one to give a voice or say hey, something can be done or something should be done about this."
"I would like to know who authorized that transfer and I want to know who did it and did not inform me. I want to know who gave them the power to take my personal information and put my signature on a piece of paper without my know how and I would like them to be fired and I don't know how they're going to compensate me for literally diminishing my right, taking away something that is so fundamentally given to you just by being born in the country. Like how are you going to compensate someone simply by saying oh well you're not a citizen because you're not allowed to vote because you're not allowed to exercise your constitutional right."
We spoke to the Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai who told us she saw the post and her office is already conducting an investigation. Flowers says no one has spoken to her yet.
Speaking of another person to whom it happened, Tamai added, quote, "if these persons were erroneously transferred these must be corrected and officers held responsible."
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