THE highly anticipated ongoing electoral fraud trial has been adjourned to Wednesday, August 7, 2024 at 09:30hrs, because of an unforeseen circumstance involving the presiding magistrate.
The trial, which was scheduled to enter day four on Monday, August 5, 2024, faced a delay as a result of Senior Magistrate Leron Daly falling ill, necessitating the postponement.
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 Election 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.

All the defendants have been admitted to cash bail.
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.

The trial began on July 29, 2024, and is anticipated to last for six weeks. At the most recent hearing on July 31, 2024, Special Prosecutor Darshan Ramdhani, KC, voiced strong objections to what he described as the “exclusion” of pertinent evidence deemed inadmissible by the magistrate.
Ramdhani highlighted a significant issue: the omission of evidence provided by key witnesses, including Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Sonia Parag and election observer from the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Rosalinda Rasul, who is the Head of the Diaspora Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation.
They are the only witnesses who have so far provided testimony.

The issue arose when Parag’s testimony implicated an agent of the APNU+AFC, an individual who was not charged. This led to the court ruling the testimony inadmissible, a decision Ramdhani argued could have far-reaching consequences. Another focal point of Ramdhani’s concerns was the accuracy of the court records. He noted that while the trial proceedings are being recorded, there are discrepancies between the recordings and the notes taken by Magistrate Daly.
As such, the King’s Counsel cited over 40 instances where he believed vital evidence had been omitted from the magistrate’s official notes.

He, therefore, requested permission to review the recordings to pinpoint these omissions, underscoring the importance of a complete and accurate record for the trial’s integrity.
Magistrate Daly responded by clarifying that not all evidence presented in court is admissible, and thus not all testimony is included in her notes. She has provided the prosecution with the opportunity to review the recordings and her notes of evidence.
One of the defence attorneys, Eusi Anderson, however, raised objections to the prosecution’s submissions and questioned the impartiality of the prosecutor Ramdhani. Anderson has made multiple requests, including for the original Statements of Poll (SoPs) and additional security measures for the nine defendants to ensure that they are not followed or intimidated.

He has also sought permission from the court to pay a visit to the site of the former GECOM Command Centre at Ashmin’s Building on High and Hadfield streets, Georgetown, claiming that these steps are vital for a fair trial. However, Ramdhani countered that these motions appeared to be attempts to prolong the trial and possibly gain media attention.

The APNU+AFC coalition 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 for the PPP/C 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 (Demerara-Mahaica), 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 delays in the start of the trial, primarily due to requests from the defence.