Voter Fraud Claims Rock San Ignacio, Santa Elena Ahead of Elections

Mayor Earl Trapp is sounding the alarm over alleged voter fraud in San Ignacio and Santa Elena. It’s a long-running issue in the Twin Towns that has now landed in the Magistrate’s Court. But, with only a few months left before the municipal elections, Mayor Trapp is calling on the Elections and Boundaries Department to be more vigilant. Here is how he described the issue.

 

Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio/Santa Elena

“In 2024 municipal elections I defeated the PUP candidate in all three polling areas that make up the Twin Towns, seventy-two, seventy-three and seventy-six. One year later, during the 2025 general election polling area seventy-three recorded an extra ordinary increase of over one thousand fifty-six new votes cost. One thousand fifty-six just a year after. To put this into perspective, polling area seventy-two increased by fifteen percent. When I spoke to a political analyst and election observer, he said fifteen percent is the norm. polling area seventy-six increased by nine percent, while polling area seventy-three increased by a little over sixty-sixty five percent. Which is a thousand additional votes in just one year. One example shows the scale of concern, just before January 2024 registration deadline, eighteen new voters were registered at a single two-bedroom residence on Orion Street. Those eighteen individuals carried fifteen different surnames. Most of them teenagers and young adults. The same address, during the official transfer period in July and August, received sixteen additional voter transfers.”

 

Mayor Trapp will be contesting the upcoming municipal election in a bid for his fifth term in office.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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