An official with the Peoples’ Electoral Committee of Milintica has defected to Huenya, claiming to have evidence that the 2024 Milintican presidential elections were rigged.
Mikaere Tahana, the Deputy Inspector General of the PEC, emerged in the Huenyan city of Ixtenco after having fled the Milintican capital Huānoch. Tahana held a press conference in which she claimed to have left the capital one step ahead of the National Police. “I was warned that an arrest warrant had been drafted against me. I left the capital as quickly as I could,” Tahana said. She described taking a ferry to the island of Kōputaroa, and then another to the city of Wairarapa before taking a flight to Ixtenco under an assumed identity. Tahana declined to say who warned her of her impending arrest in order to protect their identity.
Tahana claimed that she was ordered not to investigate claims that President Neina Arana and the Milintican Communist Party conspired with other PEC officials and government officials to swing the vote in Arana’s favor. She said that PEC Chairman Wera Hauraki and PEC Inspector General Xochinan both instructed her to drop the investigation. Tahana also claimed that she has evidence of the collusion, which she plans to present to Huenyan intelligence officials.
After her press conference, agents with Huenya’s Federal Intelligence Service escorted Tahana out of the Ixtenco airport. Huenyan officials confirmed that Tahana has requested asylum, a request which the Huenyan government is considering. “At a minimum, we will provide Ms. Tahana with protection and shelter until such time as an asylum decision is made,” Secretary of State Huitzilhuani told the media. “There is great reason to believe that her life will be in danger if she has to return to Milintica, and as such, we will not compel her to do so.”
In Huānoch, President Arana denounced Tahana as “a liar, a double agent, and a stooge of Huenya and the UCS.” She accused Tahana of fabricating her claims “for money and comforts.” Arana further claimed, without evidence, that Tahana was also being paid by supporters of the now-banned Milintican People’s Party “to spread the ridiculous lie that the election was not genuine.” She demanded that Huenya return Tahana to Milintica, a request that the Huenyan State Department confirmed will not be honored.
