Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., has described as a “tragedy” the fact that the Magistrate’s Court has yet to commence trials for the charges stemming from the contentious 2020 General and Regional Elections, nearly four years after they were filed.
“It is a tragedy that we are entering the year of another election… and these fraud charges which arose from those elections have not seen the light of a trial as yet,” Nandlall said during Tuesday’s airing of his weekly programme, Issues in the News.

“That state of affairs, in my humble and respectful view, is an indictment on our criminal justice system, and it continues to be of concern to a wide cross-section of Guyanese, both in Guyana and overseas.”
The Attorney General’s comments come in the wake of a decision by Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty to order fresh proceedings in the election fraud case.

This means that all charges against several senior electoral officials, including former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, will restart.
The case was previously overseen by Senior Magistrate Leron Daly, who had made critical rulings about how charges would be tried before going on medical leave in September 2024.

Nandlall noted that both the prosecution and defense teams have been invited to make submissions on whether the charges should be tried summarily or indictably.
While the prosecution has already filed its submissions, the defense has yet to do so, which Nandlall believes is a deliberate attempt to delay the hearings.
The next date for the court hearing is January 13,2025.

Nandlall also questioned the reassignment of the cases, pointing out that the magistrate who initially presided over the matters, and had temporarily stepped down due to illness, has resumed duties but is no longer hearing the cases.
“There is no explanation as to why that magistrate is no longer hearing these cases,” Nandlall said, adding that such a decision warrants transparency.

The Attorney General emphasized that his remarks were not intended as an attack on the judiciary, but as a factual account of the current state of the proceedings.
He stressed that the delays in resolving these charges undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system, especially as Guyana approaches another election cycle.

“I am not attacking any magistrate or any judicial officer. I am not attacking the judiciary. I am just putting on record factual narratives.
“I hope my comments are not going to be misinterpreted as being attacking the judiciary or the magistrate. I have not stated here an inaccurate assertion. All I have recited are material facts which have occurred,” Nandlall said.

The defendants in the case include prominent political and electoral figures: former District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, former Health Minister Volda Lawrence, People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) activist Carol Smith-Joseph, former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, former

Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, and GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.

Together, they face 19 charges of conspiracy to commit electoral fraud. All defendants have pleaded not guilty and are out on cash bail.
The allegations stem from claims that the accused manipulated the results for Region Four, the country’s largest electoral district, to favour the APNU+AFC coalition.

Prosecutors allege that these actions sought to inflate the coalition’s vote count and undermine the democratic process.

Central to their case are key pieces of evidence, including flash drives containing Statements of Poll (SOPs) and Statements of Recount (SORs), approximately 72 witness statements, and official documents.
The defence team also includes attorneys-at-law Ronald Daniels, Eusi Anderson, and Darren Wade. On the prosecution side, there is also attorney-at-law Latchmie Rahamat and several state counsels from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The reportedly altered elections results, announced by Lowenfield, indicated an APNU+AFC win with 171,825 votes against the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) 166,343.
However, a subsequent recount, overseen by a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) team and GECOM, reversed the outcome, revealing a PPP/C victory by over 15,000 votes.

The recount clearly demonstrated that the PPP/C won with 233,336 votes while the coalition received 217,920. GECOM made the decision to dismiss Lowenfield, Myers, and Mingo in August 2021, after the allegations of fraud came to light.