By Feona Morrison

MINISTER of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag resumed giving testimony on Tuesday, revealing more details of alleged fraud during the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Parag’s testimony highlighted the continuous use of spreadsheets for vote tabulation by Clairmont Mingo, former Returning Officer for District Four (Demerara- Mahaica), despite the explicit orders of Chief Justice Roxane George to adhere strictly to Statements of Poll (SoPs).

The high-profile trial, which has gripped the nation’s attention, commenced at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Monday under the conduct of Senior Magistrate Leron Daly.
The defendants are People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) activist Carol Smith-Joseph; former Health Minister under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government Volda Lawrence; former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers; Mingo; and GECOM staffers Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.
They are collectively facing 19 conspiracy charges related to alleged electoral fraud.
It is alleged that between March 2, 2020 and August 2, 2020, Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo, while in Georgetown, conspired with the other six defendants and others to defraud the electorate of Guyana by declaring a false account of the votes cast at the highly-

contentious elections.
Minister Parag continued with her testimony, stating that on March 5, 2020, at around 09:00 hours, she went back to the GECOM Command Centre, located in the Ashmins Building at the intersection of High and Hadfield Streets, in downtown Georgetown, to continue the tabulation process for District Four.
She reported seeing Lawrence about noon, followed by Mingo, who was holding a piece of paper. The witness added that since the tabulation exercise was halted on March 3, 2020 due to the then-Returning Officer’s complaint of fatigue, she had not seen him before.

‘YOU CAN’T DO THIS!’
Minister Parag stated that in accordance with Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA), Mingo notified her and other election agents, as well as local and international observers, such as those from the Carter Center, United States Embassy, Canadian High Commission, and the European Union, that he had a declaration to make regarding the List of Candidates.
Essentially, Section 84 mandates that the Returning Officer determine the total number of votes cast in support of each list, in accordance with the Statements of Poll.

“Immediately, I got up. I was frustrated and I objected strenuously to what Mr. Mingo said. “I said, ‘You can’t do this; the count for Region Four is not completed’,” the government official added.
She continued by stating that Mingo’s declaration was met with opposition from other people, and that the outcry was so loud that it drowned out his voice.
She mentioned that Lawrence and another APNU+AFC party agent (name withheld) were present, but that they both sat “quietly” in response to Mingo’s actions.

Minister Parag said that Mingo then left the room and went up the escalator after mayhem and shouting broke out, “but I didn’t see him after that for a period of time”. She recalled that others were using their cellphones to take pictures and videos of the situation.
“I saw Mr. Mingo on the balcony of the third floor, and he appeared to be reading from something. The moment that I heard that, I heard people saying, ‘Thief, thief, thief!’ I saw him disappear from the balcony. When I looked around me, I saw Volda Lawrence heading up the escalator. Everyone continued to shout,” Minister Parag said, as she detailed the tense atmosphere at the Command Centre.
She testified that Lawrence was gesticulating and shouting at the persons, and that there had been an aggressive verbal confrontation between Lawrence and those on the ground floor.
The witness further stated that she discovered a Form 24 published with two signatures, stating the total number of votes cast in District Four, when she visited GECOM’s website later that day.
She then recalled that a Fixed Date Application (FDA) had been filed at the High Court in order to get an injunction that would prevent the declaration until all of the votes had been tallied.

“THAT IS NOT WHAT THE CHIEF JUSTICE ORDERED”
Minister Parag pointed out that on March 11, 2020, the Chief Justice ruled, granting an injunction restraining Mingo or the Deputy Chief Elections Officer from declaring valid votes cast in District Four until there is compliance with section 84 of RoPA.
She said another injunction was granted to restrain the Chief Elections Officer from declaring votes until there had been compliance with section 84 of RoPA.
According to her, Justice George also ruled that the Returning Officer must comply with section 84 of RoPA in tabulating the votes for Distrcit Four by 11:00 hrs on March 12, 2020.

The minister stated that even though she was wearing her badge, she was not allowed to enter the facility when she returned to the Command Centre on the above-mentioned date.
She added that at approximately midday, Mingo announced that he intended to continue the tabulation procedure with spreadsheets, but she strongly objected.
“That is not what the Chief Justice ordered,” Minister Parag said she protested. Lawrence was there, too, she added, but she did not see her voice any complaints.
The witness continued by stating that Mingo had left the room after promising to obtain the SoPs but had come back and declared he would utilise the spreadsheets for tallying the votes.

VERY QUICKLY
She testified that when Mingo was in the room, Justice Claudette Singh, the Chairperson of GECOM, entered and inquired as to the nature of the problem. People then brought up the issue of Mingo’s reluctance to comply with the Chief Justice’s orders, according to her.
According to Parag, she went to the GECOM Secretariat in Kingston, Georgetown on March 13, 2020, to continue the tabulation process. When she arrived, she reported seeing two GECOM employees working quickly as they took turns counting the votes.
“They were going at a fast rate,” she stated, noting that she was unable to make a comparison between the figures on her party’s SoPs and the numbers that the employees were calling out.
This witness said that because she could not see what was being shown on the projected screen, she had to raise another objection, but her concerns went unanswered.
Following his non-compliance with court instructions, Minister Parag stated that she was informed that Mingo was facing contempt of court proceedings.
The counting process finished at around 19:00 hours, she added.
The government official stated that she took part in a recount of all the votes cast in the elections on March 2, 2020, as her testimony came to an end for lunch.

At 13:15 hours, Minister Parag began testifying again. She described how, on August 26, 2020, she and Mingo had a confrontation at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters in Eve Leary, Georgetown, and that Mingo chose not to comment.
Following her evidence-in-chief, the minister faced brief cross examination from the defence.

The second witness to take the stand was Head of the Diaspora Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Rosalinda Rasul. She told the court that she was an election observer for the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Guyana.
Her account provided a detailed narrative of the alleged misconduct and fraudulent activities that transpired at the GECOM Command Centre. Rasul will continue testifying today from 09:30 hours.
The case for the prosecution is being led by King’s Counsel Ramdhani while the defence attorneys include Nigel Hughes, Ronald Daniels, Eusi Anderson and Darren Wade.
The APNU+AFC Coalition received 171,825 votes, while the PPP/C received 166,343 votes, according to former CEO Lowenfield’s election report.
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 and the other defendants, allegedly inflated the results in Region Four, 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 had been multiple delays in the start of the trial, primarily due to requests from the defence.
Five months after the polls closed, on August 2, 2020, GECOM announced the official results of the 2020 elections.