— Minister Parag testifies in election fraud trial

–recalls challenges with spreadsheets in Region Four vote tabulation, verification; chaos at GECOM locations
–says recount confirmed PPP/C victory at March 2020 polls

 

LOCAL Government and Regional Development Minister Sonia Parag took the stand on Tuesday as the second witness in the long-anticipated 2020 electoral fraud trial, currently underway before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

Charged are People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member 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 at GECOM Roxanne Myers; former Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo; and GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.

Collectively, they face 19 conspiracy charges and are represented by a battery of lawyers.
As a result of the charges arising from the same set of circumstances, the matters have been consolidated. Each defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges and secured their release by posting significant cash bail.

It is the prosecution’s case that each defendant had a “critical role” to play in the wilful endeavour to inflate votes for the APNU+AFC, and deflate votes for the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C).
During her lengthy testimony, Minister Parag, who is also an attorney-at-law, detailed the actions and behaviours of former key GECOM officials, specifically highlighting the alleged misconduct she and others observed and protested against.

As a Candidate of Poll for the PPP/C in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, she testified to observing voting in areas from Unity to Supply, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on elections day.

She testified that she was sent to the GECOM Command Centre at the Ashmin’s Building on High and Hadfield streets, Georgetown, at 08:00hrs on March 3, 2020.

She was accompanied by both local and international observers—including representatives from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Carter Center and the European Union—to witness the tabulation of votes for Region Four, Guyana’s largest voting district.

Minister Parag, guided in her testimony by prosecutor, Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat, stated that she observed Mingo conducting the tabulation and verification for District Four using Statements of Poll (SoPs).

“At that time, I had with me the copies of the SoPs received by the PPP/C. For each SoPs [sic], there is a box number being called out. So, as Mingo was calling the box number, I was taking out the SoPs according to that box number to compare the numbers on the copies of the SoPs I had and the numbers that were being called by Mingo,” said Parag as she explained the process.

She stated that the tabulation process proceeded “smoothly” on March 3, 2020.
The tabulation process, according to her, was suspended at 21:00hrs after Mingo complained of being tired.

VOTE COUNT SKEWED AGAINST PPP/C
The witness told the court that she returned to GECOM’s Command Centre around 08:00hrs on March 4, 2020, when she encountered Myers, the then Deputy Returning Officer, along with Miller and a woman identified only as Miss Bowman, who was pregnant at the time.

Minister Parag testified that Myers told her that Miller and Bowman would continue with the tabulation process. She mentioned that Lawrence was present as well.

“Bowman had a laptop in front of her. Miller had what appeared to be a spreadsheet in front of her.”
Providing evidence of a pattern of fraudulent activities intended to rig the election results, Parag said: “Michelle Miller was the one calling the numbers from the spreadsheets. They [GECOM staff] started at box 4001, which was the Upper East Bank.

“When Miller started to call from that box number, she was calling numbers for the PPP/C, the APNU+AFC, and other parties that contested the elections. From box 4001, the numbers that Miller called—I compared them with the numbers I had on the copies of the SoPs—and they did not match the numbers on my SoPs.”

Parag said she objected to the numbers Miller was calling and proceeded to announce the figures she had. Although Miller paused briefly, the minster said she continued reading out the numbers.

“I objected. I said these are not the numbers, because the numbers that were being called by Michelle Miller were actually adding votes for the APNU+AFC and deducting votes for the PPP/C.

“She [Miller] then went on to box 4002. For every box, from 4002 to 4021, I objected to every single one of those boxes. The numbers she called did not match the numbers I had on the copies of the SoPs for the PPP/C or the APNU+AFC,” Minister Parag testified.

Minister Parag recalled hearing whispers from those seated nearby as she continued to voice her objections. She specifically remembered now Minister Kwame McCoy shouting, “They are trying to rig these elections.”

At that point, she recalled that Jonathan Yearwood of the A New and United Guyana (ANUG) party demanded that GECOM staff produce the SoPs.

When asked what happened after Yearwood made his request, Parag recounted: “She [Miller] stopped for a bit, and shortly after, the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, entered the room. Lowenfield listened to the objections.”

Minister Parag told the court that she remembered Lowenfield saying that the spreadsheets had votes recorded from the SoPs.

As an election observer, she noted that Teni Housty, the then-President of the Bar Association of Guyana, read aloud Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA) regarding the use of SoPs.

Essentially, Section 84 mandates that the Returning Officer determine the total number of votes cast in support of each list, in accordance with the SoPs.

Minister Parag said that a member of the GECOM staff had left the room and returned with what looked like SoPs, while she persisted in her protest against the use of spreadsheets in the tabulation process.
The witness said that while comparing the numbers on her SoPs with those being read by the GECOM staff using their own SoPs, she found that the figures matched exactly.

In her testimony, Parag stated that the tabulation and verification process resumed from box 4001, using what appeared to be GECOM’s SoPs, while she simultaneously compared the figures with the copies of the SoPs in her possession.

She stated that GECOM employees claimed they were tired and the process was interrupted at 21:00hrs. Minister Parag testified that she objected to halting the tabulation process because she wanted it to continue uninterrupted.

Despite her objections, the process was stopped. Several others in the room also protested, demanding that the tabulation proceed, according to her.

Following these events, she recalled that Miller and Bowman were replaced by two other GECOM staff members, including a man she identified as Livan.

“He [Livan] was calling the numbers extremely slowly. He said he was tired too, and he slowed down… very low voice, and then he just stopped. It was about 12:30 in the morning on March 5, 2020,” she added.

The witness deposed that only 421 of the 879 ballot boxes in District Four were counted at this point. According to the minister, the tabulation process was then halted amid commotion outside, and she left the GECOM Command Centre around 03:00hrs on March 5, 2025.

BOMB SCARE, PREMATURE DECLARATION
She testified that she returned to the Command Centre at 11:00hrs on March 5, 2020, when police officers informed her of a bomb scare at the location.

“I remained where I was; I wasn’t moving,” she said, adding that she did not believe there was a bomb scare.

“I recalled Myers saying that we had to leave the room,” she testified, noting, “I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t believe there was a bomb scare. I thought it was a [plan] to get us out of the building. I took a seat and stayed there all day.”

Later that afternoon, Minister Parag stated that Mingo arrived at the Command Centre holding a piece of paper.

“He looked down and said, ‘I have a declaration to make in relation to Region Four and the Representation of the People Act,’” she recalled.

“I said, ‘You cannot do this; the tabulation process is not completed,’” she recalled telling Mingo.
Minister Parag described the atmosphere in the room as tense and chaotic. She added that, shortly after, Mingo walked out of the room without making a declaration.

Minister Parag testified that she later discovered a declaration form on the GECOM website bearing the signature of Mingo, which contained a purported declaration of results for Region Four.

INJUNCTIONS
She said this development prompted the filing of a Fixed Date Application (FDA) against GECOM and several of its officials, including Mingo.

The application, she noted, was filed by PPP/C’s General Secretary and Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, seeking several injunctions.

Minister Parag said that three injunctions were granted, including one by the Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, SC, which specifically restrained Mingo from declaring the valid votes for Region Four until he had complied with Section 84 of RoPA.

She explained that the order directed Mingo to complete the tabulation and verification of votes using the SoPs before making any declaration, and that the process was to be concluded by 11:00hrs on March 12, 2020.

Minister Parag returned to the Command Centre that same day, where Mingo announced he would continue the tabulation process using spreadsheets.

Parag said she objected, emphasising that this went against the Chief Justice’s ruling, and insisted that the SoPs be used instead.

She stated that Mingo, however, insisted he could use whatever method he preferred, arguing that the court ruling did not explicitly require the use of SoPs.

According to Minister Parag, this sparked objections from everyone present, including foreign diplomats.

She recalled that Mingo then left, and GECOM Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh arrived at the Command Centre.

Minister Parag told the court that she raised concerns with GECOM Chairperson over Mingo’s actions. According to her, Justice Singh indicated she was not aware of the Chief Justice’s ruling at the time, but was awaiting a copy.

She said contempt-of-court proceedings were later filed against Mingo, and the tabulation and verification process resumed on March 13, 2020, at GECOM’s Kingston, Georgetown headquarters.

RUSHED MANNER
Minister Parag said that while at the Kingston location, she encountered GECOM employees Denise Babb-Cummings and Sheffern February, as well as PNCR’s Carol Smith-Joseph.

She stated that February was calling out numbers from what appeared to be SoPs, but was doing so at a very rapid pace, making it difficult for her to follow or see the numbers being projected onto the bedsheet.

“It was very blurry, and it was going way too quickly. So, I was unable to compare them with my SoPs. I objected because that was not in compliance with the Chief Justice’s order. You could not tabulate and verify from that,” the witness said.

Despite her objections, she said February continued with the process in that manner.
According to her, the tabulation and verification for the general elections concluded around 7 p.m., after which the process moved on to the regional elections.

She noted that the verification for the regional ballots was conducted in a similarly rushed manner.
Minister Parag added that she left the GECOM headquarters sometime between 09:30hrs and 22:00hrs, with the process still incomplete.

However, before midnight, she observed a declaration form for District Four had been posted on GECOM’s website, bearing the signatures of Smith-Joseph and Mingo.

PPP/C VICTORY
She stated that on March 14, 2020, she accompanied Charles Ramson—now Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, who was then a counting agent for the PPP/C—to serve a formal request on Mingo for a recount.

She noted that several legal proceedings followed concerning the validity of the District Four results. Eventually, in May 2020, she deposed that a national recount of the general and regional elections was conducted, with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) serving as the interlocutor.

Minister Parag noted that she was actively involved in the entire 33-day national recount process.
“Upon completion of the recount, it showed that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) had the majority of votes for the General and Regional Elections held on March 2, 2020,” she said.

The trial resumes at 09:30hrs today with testimony from Kian Jabour of ANUG. Minister Parag is scheduled to continue her testimony on Thursday.