Tonight, politics is hot in Cayo - after an all day court hearing to challenge the validity of scores of new voters that were added to the list in the last transfer period.
At the end of September, we told you that there were allegations of gross election fraud in Cayo North. While registering phantom voters is not a new practice, UDP Standard bearer, Omar Figueroa, brought the matter to court after he noticed at least a hundred suspicious registrations that happened during the transfer period.
In a tightly contested constituency like that - even a handful of voters can make a difference - and that's why the appearance of dozens of them spun the UDP into a panic. They got the Magistrate to compel the registration office to release the street addresses for the new voters - and today the magistrate led a site visit, or locus to these alleged safe houses.
It's the sort of thing that doesn't happen every day and Courtney Menzies has this story from San Ignacio:
Allegations of election fraud in Cayo North are before the Magistrate's court with the UDP standard bearer, Omar Figueroa as the chief complainant.
He alleges that at houses like these - thePUP registered as many as 100 phantom voters That led to a locus visit today, where presiding magistrate Kara Waters leading the court party to visit three homes that had at least two dozen people registered to it.
Following those visits, the hearing continued in court where the claimants' three attorneys, Richard "Dickie" Bradley, Leeroy Banner, and Marcel Cardona were present.
The case adjourned late this evening, and Figueroa explained what took place before and during the court session.
Omar Figueroa, Standard Bearer, UDP Cayo North
"Magistrate Waters has heard testimony from three of our four objectors. We are currently on the fourth, and we're hoping to finish tomorrow at 11."
"The court adjourned today, and it's set a date for tomorrow at 11 a.m. Today, the magistrate visited the residents of three landlords that were listed on the investigation sheets. Unfortunately, none of the landlords were home, but the magistrate was able to interview some people in the area, some neighbors, and at the end of the day, I guess she will make her own determination."
"It's still very early to say what will be the outcome. We are confident that the cases to which we have objected are genuine. We are convinced that they are fraudulent, and it is our hope that the magistrate and the court will listen to the evidence that we present."
And he says he's grateful that the matter is being investigated and he hopes justice will be served, but added that by his reckoning there are a lot more addresses that need to be looked into.
Omar Figueroa, Standard Bearer, UDP Cayo North
"We know that there are several other houses. When you file objections, you have a limited time frame, and so we compile those, and we file the ones that we have been able to survey and to make our own assessments, conduct our own investigations."
"But we are confident that there are others. The ones we presented are the ones that we believe are blatant, you know, like 28 transfers into one house, 14 into another house, and things like that, you know."
"In July, when we objected, it was 24, I believe, in a house that's probably 10 by 15. And so our objections are based a lot on those aspects, you know, the fact that every house has a physical carrying capacity."
"And we believe that any objective mind looking at these registrations will come to the determination that, you know what, that physical carrying capacity has been surpassed a long time ago."
The case will continue in court tomorrow morning.
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