THE trial regarding the alleged election fraud during Guyana’s 2020 General and Regional Elections is set to commence on July 29th, presided over by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly.
The long-standing high-profile case, which has remained stagnant before the Georgeotwn Magistrates’ Court for more than three years, has been authorised to proceed after a recent ruling by Chief Justice Roxane George.

In a recent ruling, Chief Justice George dismissed a major delay and concluded that the Representation of the People Act, which prohibits disclosure of GECOM meetings, does not infringe upon the constitutional rights of former Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield and his Deputy, Roxanne Myers, to a fair trial.

As a result of this dismissal, Magistrate Daly will now oversee the 28 criminal charges concerning attempted election fraud.
The case was brought before Magistrate Daly, on Wednesday, for the purpose of providing an update. Trial hearings have been scheduled for July 29-31 and August 5-6, 2024.
Special Prosecutor, Darshan Ramdhani, KC, will be leading the State’s case.

The prosecution has already provided the defence with substantial evidence, including flash drives containing certified copies of Statements of Poll (SoPs) and Statements of Recount (SoRs), witness statements from dozens of individuals, and video interviews. Additional documentary evidence has also been disclosed.

Among the 90-plus prosecution witnesses are notable figures such as communications consultant, Kit Nascimento; Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag; Head of the Diaspora Unit, Rosalinda Rasul; Forensic Investigator, Rawle Nedd and former Region Four Police Commander, Edgar Thomas.

People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) activist, Carol Smith-Joseph; former Health Minister under the APNU+AFC government, Volda Lawrence; former Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy CEO, Roxanne Myers; former District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo; and Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller are accused of a number of offences.
These include misconduct in public office, uttering forged documents, and plotting to deceive the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes.

Among other things, it is alleged that the defendants 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 March 2020 polls, when, in fact, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won by over 15,000 votes.

They are out on cash bail pending the determination of their matters.
The APNU+AFC received 171,825 votes, while the PPP/C received 166,343 votes, according to former CEO Lowenfield’s election report.

However, it was evident from the official findings of the recount process, which was supervised by GECOM and a high-level Caribbean Community (CARICOM) team that the coalition had received 217,920 votes, while the PPP/C had received 233,336 votes, which was enough to win.

In order to help the APNU+AFC caretaker administration stay in power, Mingo allegedly inflated the results in Region Four, the largest voting region in Guyana, as the recount process also revealed. In August 2021, GECOM made the decision to sack Lowenfield, Myers, and Mingo.

Following the filing of charges against the defendants in late 2020, there have been multiple postponements in their trial’s start date, primarily due to requests from the defence.
In April 2023, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections found that there was collusion and collaboration among senior GECOM officials to divert votes to the APNU +AFC instead of safeguarding and preserving the integrity of the electoral system.

Chairman, Stanley John and commissioners — former Chancellor, Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith — made those findings based on evidence from the many witnesses who had testified, along with the reports of the international observers.

“…our inquiry reveals that there were, in fact, shockingly brazen attempts by Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo, to derail and corrupt the statutorily prescribed procedure for the counting, ascertaining and tabulation of votes of the March 2nd election, as well as the true declaration of the results of that election, and that they did so – to put it in unvarnished language of the ordinary man – for the purpose of stealing the election,” the commissioners said in their report.

The report found that Lowenfield blatantly made decisions and employed procedures in direct contradiction to the law and the will of the people. The findings revealed, too, that GECOM staffers ignored specific instructions from the court, used materials that were illegal and/or manipulated, and sided with APNU+AFC agents to berate observers whenever objections were raised.

After careful scrutiny, the CoI commissioners concluded that there was a conscious and deliberate – even brazen – effort to violate the provisions of section 84(1) of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA).
In so doing, certain “senior GECOM officials” abandoned all need for neutrality and impartiality, and demonstrated a bias for the APNU+AFC and, in the course of events over those days, showed an “open connection” with that party, and by their efforts sought a desired result for the coalition.

As such, the commissioners said that after consideration and analysis of the evidence, Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers “were principally responsible for clear and deliberate attempts to frustrate, obstruct and subvert the ascertainment of votes in electoral district No. 4.”