FORMER People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Chairperson Volda Lawrence; PNC/R activist Carol Smith-Joseph; and four persons who were employed at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) during the 2020 General and Regional Elections on Monday pleaded not guilty to amended charges related to their alleged involvement in defrauding Guyanese electors.

The four GECOM employees are Sherfern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Bobb-Cummings and Michelle Miller.

Former Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield; his deputy, Roxanne Myers; and former District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo are also before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on similar charges.

During Monday’s hearing, the Chief Magistrate granted an application made by Special Attorney-at-Law Darshan Ramdhani, KC for the charges against Lawrence, Smith-Joseph, February, Livan, Bobb-Cummings and Miller to be amended.

The amended charges read that the accused, between March 2 and August 2, 2020, at Georgetown, conspired with Lowenfield and Mingo to defraud the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes cast in the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.

Additionally, Miller was slapped with a separate charge which alleged that between March 3-5, 2020, at the GECOM command centre at Ashmin’s building on High and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown, she conspired with persons to defraud the people of Guyana by not using the figures from the Statements of Poll for the purpose of ascertaining the figures to make the declaration of the results for the said District Four, thereby resulting in a false declaration being made for the said District.

Miller pleaded not guilty to that charge.

During Monday’s hearing, the Chief Magistrate also ruled for the case to remain in the Magistrates’ Court.

The defendants’ attorneys had argued for the case to be heard in the High Court given the nature of the proceedings which might infringe on their client’s rights to a fair trial within a reasonable time.

Nevertheless, the Chief Magistrate ruled that despite the voluminous evidence and the complexity of the case, the court has been proceeding with hearing the case “expeditiously”.

The matter was adjourned until March 13, 2023, for reports.

In August 2021, Mingo, along with Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield and his deputy, Roxanne Myers, had their employment terminated by the commission.

It is alleged that the trio inflated or facilitated the inflation of results for Region Four, the country’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC Coalition a majority win at the polls when, in fact, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won by 15,000 votes.

Those who rejected the results filed several legal challenges which ended up before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Guyana’s highest appeal court.

A lengthy recount of the votes eventually declared victory in favour of the PPP/C, and Dr. Irfaan Ali was sworn in as the President of Guyana on August 2, 2020.