Sunday, April 8, 2012
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THE BELIZE TIMES
A fraud at City Hall?
Michael Theus was an employee of City Council while running Belize City, April 2, 2012 The scale of the fraud and illegalities that the UDP perpetuated on the Belizean electorate leading up to the elections continue to come to light each passing day. Last week the BELIZE TIMES broke the story that UDP Representatives Santi Castillo, Herman Longsworth and Mark King were elected in breach of the Constitution of Belize. The three were parties to existing contracts with the Government of Belize and did not disclose this fact to the electorate. They put themselves up for election and did not have the decency to disclose; and in violation of the Constitution. Now this week the BELIZE TIMES has unearthed that the fraud was also perpetuated by a UDP Belize City candidate. Michael Theus, at the time of
the election, worked at the Belize City Council as the Coordinator for Traffic Enforcement. He had another job too, to fly to Venezuela as part of the bilateral medical program where he chaperoned Belizeans, but he got distracted and ended up chaperoning a few Venezuelan counterparts too. But that story is for another time. Theus, who worked at City Hall in the Traffic Department leading up to the election, is now the Councillor in charge of Traffic. What twisted irony, right? But that’s how the UDP does it. Now all this would not be newsworthy or important, except that Theus is likely illegally sitting as a City Councillor. The City Council Act states at Part II, Section 7(1) that “no person shall be eligible for election as a member of the Council, or having been elected, shall sit or vote on the Council, who (a) holds an office of emolument; or (c) is in the employment of the Council”. What that section clearly states is that a person who is an employee of the City Council is barred from running for office as a Councillor. So when Theus, at the time of the election was an employee of the City Council and campaigned that he was serving as the “Coordinator for Traffic Enforcement”, he was actually running as an illegal candidate.
For a Party with a Leader who is Mr. Put to Right and Mr. Know it all, we do not believe that Dean Barrow was unable to detect that he had a handful of disqualified candi-
dates. It is our belief that despite the serious transgressions, he pressed them to run, hoping he could get this one past Belizeans. You were wrong Mr. Barrow.
Meet Ambassadors Judas & Iscariot
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seemed then as defiant PUPs standing on moral high-ground but turning out to be nothing more than sell outs. On Tuesday afternoon, a Government release confirmed what had been rumoured for weeks now – that the UDP had appointed Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde as Ambassador and Consul General, as some sort of payback for backstabbing the PUP and helping the UDP win a second term. Both objectives were achieved, not by any single act on the part of the two, but multiple undertakings that included secret meetings along a certain residence on Seashore drive where the anti-PUP’s plot was devised and executed, leaking confidential information to agents of the UDP, abandoning their responsibility at House Meetings, conspiring inside the PUP to turn supporters against the leadership, undermining the leaders, and finally resigning only two weeks to the March 7th
election making it extremely difficult for the PUP to put up a proper fight. It is in all those deceitful acts that Espat and Hyde co-conspired against the PUP and are today collecting the dividends of their disloyalty and treachery. But what is the price of treachery? For Espat it seems to be his appointment to lead negotiator and diplomatic status. For Hyde it is the ambassadorial appointment that will keep him far away from the pain, sorrow and suffering the people of Lake I must endure. Reports are that somewhere in the mix of things $2m is also involved. Most Belizeans are only now realising the extent of the deceit played out by Espat and Hyde - how they pretended to be for the people, how they hurt the PUP and worked against the Party, how they abandoned their responsibility to their supporters and voters, how they have become modernday Judases, who sold out the PUP for thirty pieces of silver.
Mayor Anthony Fuentes
and the Punta Gorda Town Council wish all Punta Gorda residents and Belizeans a Happy and Safe Easter!
“May the glory of our living Lord, Renew you hopes, your faith,your joy. Have a Blessed Easter Season”