–say documents needed to prosecute Mingo, others charged in elections case

By Richard Bhainie

COMMISSIONER of Police (ag), Nigel Hoppie and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, have initiated legal proceedings in the High Court, seeking orders to obtain certified copies of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) and Statements of Recount (SoRs) from the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, which are currently lodged with the Registrar of the High Court.

The Sunday Chronicle understands that the SoPs and SoRs are needed to aid the investigation and prosecution of the elections matters before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. The decision to move to the High Court came after the ‘Top Cop’ wrote the Registrar of the High Court, Ms. Sueanna Lovell to obtain the certified copies of the documents, but she reportedly informed him, by way of a letter, that she was unable to do so without an order from the Court.
Chief Justice (ag.), Roxane George, S.C., on January 18, 2021 had ordered that the SoRs and SoPs be lodged with the High Court for “safekeeping”, after she struck out one of the elections petitions that sought to overturn the results of the polls. The request for the documents to be lodged at the court was made by Attorneys-at-law Douglas Mendes, S.C., and Kashir Khan, who brought to the court’s attention that the Representation of the People Act allows for the Chief Elections Officer to destroy all elections documents after a 12-month period would have elapsed.

Accordingly, Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield on January 27, 2021 delivered the SoPs and SoRs to the Registrar of the Supreme Court. With several employees of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) being prosecuted pertaining to their conduct in the March 2, 2020 polls, the DPP had advised and instructed the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to obtain certified copies of the SoPs and SoRs as part of their investigations and gathering of evidence for presentation to the Court.
The employees at reference are Mr. Clairmont Mingo, GECOM’s District Four Returning Officer, who was charged with four counts of Misconduct in Public Office; Mr. Lowenfield, who was charged with three counts of Misconduct in Public Office and three counts of Forgery; and Ms. Roxanne Myers, Deputy CEO, who was charged with two counts of Misconduct in Public Office.

“The Statements of Poll and Statements of Recount are necessary for the fair hearing of the charges, as they constitute relevant evidence for the prosecution to prove the commission of the offences which are charged,” the Commissioner of Police and DPP stated in their respective correspondence to the High Court on Friday.

HAS LAWFUL RIGHT
The Commissioner of Police, by common law and statute, particularly Section 50 of the Criminal Law (Procedure) Act, has the lawful right to collect and recover all documents and property which are relevant to the investigation and prosecution of any circumstance; however, the Registrar has informed him that she is unable to comply with his request without a Court Order.

“With the greatest respect, Commissioner, I do not have the power to comply with your direction, for the simple fact that I am the custodian of those documents, by an Order of Court. That Order of Court DOES NOT empower or authorise me to copy, duplicate, share or otherwise part with possession of those documents to the benefit of any person or authority,” Ms. Lovell wrote telling the Commissioner of Police, in a letter dated February 5, 2021.
She then went on to inform him that should he require access to the said documents, he’d need to obtain an Order of Court with specific directions directed to her.
“Aside from that,” she said, “I cannot act outside the scope of the extant order.”

But the DPP and Commissioner of Police have reiterated in their application to the High Court that it is imperative for them to be afforded access to the official copies of SoPs and SoRs, as the documents are relevant evidence to prove that the various employees committed the offences they are charged with.
While the documents can be easily obtained from the political parties, as they are in the public domain, the official documents lodged with the Court by GECOM would be best to dispel any doubts as to their authenticity.

“If the prosecution does not have these documents, the hearing of the charges instituted will be inordinately delayed, because hundreds of witnesses will have to testify, in their stead, in the charges instituted, causing the case not to be afforded a fair hearing within a reasonable time,” the DPP wrote in her affidavit in support of the application.
In the Court documents seen by this newspaper, the action was filed on Friday last, and lists the Attorney-General, GECOM, and the Registrar of the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature as respondents.