THE high-profile electoral fraud case arising from Guyana’s controversial 2020 general and regional elections is set to continue Thursday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, with the second prosecution witness scheduled to take the stand before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty.
This follows Wednesday’s testimony by Rosalinda Rasul, Head of the Diaspora Unit and an accredited election observer with the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Guyana.
Rasul, who monitored the elections as part of the AmCham observer team, was cross-examined by defence attorney Darren Wade.

Previously, during her testimony, Rasul stated that former Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield’s use of spreadsheets in the results-verification process raised serious concerns among election observers, opposition party agents from the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), and smaller political parties.

She had also described a chaotic scene with delays and inconsistencies in the number of uncounted ballot boxes.
The case has attracted international attention, with several high-ranking former officials facing serious charges, including misconduct in public office, conspiracy to defraud and uttering forged documents.
Among the accused are former Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo; former Health Minister Volda Lawrence; People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) activist Carol Smith-Joseph; former GECOM CEO Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers; and GECOM staff Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.

Prosecutors allege that the defendants attempted to inflate votes in favour of the APNU+AFC coalition to subvert the democratic process.
The state’s case includes extensive documentary evidence such as flash drives containing Statements of Poll (SoPs) and Statements of Recount (SoRs), 73 witness statements and a trove of official records.
The prosecution team is led by Special Prosecutors Darshan Ramdhani, KC, and Thomas Astaphan, KC, supported by attorney Latchmie Rahamat and state counsel from the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Office.
The defence is represented by a legal team that includes Nigel Hughes, Eusi Anderson Ronald Daniels, and Dexter Todd.

Among the key witnesses still to be called are Minister of Local Government Sonia Parag, forensic investigator Rawle Nedd and former Region Four Police Commander Edgar Thomas.
As the proceedings resume today, the second witness is expected to further bolster the state’s case as the court continues to unravel the events surrounding the disputed 2020 elections.
The prosecution alleges that the accused inflated or facilitated the inflation of results for Region Four—Guyana’s largest voting district—to give the APNU+AFC coalition an illegitimate victory in the March 2020 elections. Official results later confirmed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won by over 15,000 votes.

Initially, former CEO Lowenfield submitted an election report claiming APNU+AFC had received 171,825 votes while the PPP/C secured 166,343.
However, a national recount—conducted under the supervision of GECOM and a high-level Caribbean Community (CARICOM) team—determined that APNU+AFC had actually received 217,920 votes, while the PPP/C had won with 233,336 votes.
The recount process also revealed that Mingo had allegedly manipulated the Region Four results to keep the APNU+AFC caretaker administration in power.
This led to GECOM’s decision in August, 2021, to terminate Lowenfield, Myers, and Mingo.

Since charges were first filed in late 2020, multiple postponements have stalled the case, primarily due to requests from the defence. The accused remains out on cash bail as the trial continues.
Initially set to begin in early 2024, the trial has faced numerous delays due to objections and applications by 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 on the basis of 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.”