THE trial surrounding alleged electoral fraud in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, continued on Thursday before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Those charged include People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member Carol Smith-Joseph and former Health Minister under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government, Volda Lawrence.

Also facing charges are former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Keith Lowenfield, former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers and former Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.
Also charged are former GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings and Michelle Miller.
Collectively, they face 19 conspiracy charges and are being represented by a large defence team.
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).
Jonathan Yearwood, a former executive member of the political party A New and United Guyana (ANUG), took the stand as the latest witness.
Yearwood, who served as ANUG’s appointed counting agent for Region Five before moving to Region Four, was led in his testimony by state prosecutor, attorney-at-law Madana Rampersaud.
He detailed a sequence of events that occurred on March 4, 2020, when he went to the Ashmins Building—the designated tabulation and verification centre for Region Four—around 18:30hrs.
The site was also serving as GECOM’s Command Centre.

According to Yearwood, ANUG had another agent, Alex D’Aguiar, stationed at the location for two days, but he called to say he was exhausted. As a senior member of the party, Yearwood went to relieve him. Upon arriving at the Ashmins Building, Yearwood said he entered the verification room where he met with other counting agents from various political parties.
He testified that shortly after 19:00hrs, then CEO Lowenfield entered the room and introduced two individuals: Deputy Returning Officer Babb-Cummings and a GECOM clerk identified as Alexandra Bowman.

The witness recalled that Lowenfield informed those present that these two officials would be assuming responsibility for the tabulation and verification of results from that point forward.
Yearwood noted the presence of other political representatives during this critical moment, including Lenox Shuman of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Rondha-Ann Lam from The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) and Asha Kissoon of The New Movement (TNM).
He also observed representatives from the two major political parties—PPP/C and APNU+AFC.
Among those also present were Sasenarine Singh—now Guyana’s Ambassador to Belgium—and Sonia Parag, who currently serves as Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, both representing the PPP/C.
Lawrence represented the PNCR, the principal party within the APNU coalition.
Yearwood also shared that, prior to this event, he had held several discussions with Lowenfield regarding the general conduct of the elections, given his senior role within ANUG.

Sometime afterwards, he recalled that the GECOM officials began reviewing the Statements of Poll (SoPs) and announcing the figures.
He explained that, at the time, he did not have his own copies of the SoPs to verify the numbers being announced. However, he was seated next to Singh, who had his laptop open, and Singh allowed him to compare the announced figures with those displayed on the screen.
DISCREPANCIES
Yearwood testified, “Some of the figures they were calling out were not in line with what I was seeing on Singh’s laptop. Some of the political agents and others were trying to draw that to the attention of [Bowman and Babb-Cummings]. At that point, the process was new to me, so I just looked on and observed what was taking place.”

When asked who was trying to draw attention to the discrepancies in the figures, the witness said, “It came mainly from the PPP/C personnel—Singh and Parag. They, along with the APNU+AFC representatives, were the only ones I believe had Statements of Poll. I don’t think any of the smaller political parties had observers in the polling stations, so they wouldn’t have collected SoPs.”
Yearwood said that while they objected, Bowman and Babb-Cummings did not take any notice of it and simply continued calling out the figures and recording them.
“Miss Babb-Cummings was calling out the figures, and Miss Bowman was working the laptop. As she called out the figures, Miss Bowman was inputting them into the laptop. The data was being displayed on a large screen, so we saw the figures being inputted on the screen.”
Around 21:00hrs, Yearwood said Bowman and Babb-Cummings expressed that they were tired and hungry, and requested permission to take a break for dinner.
The witness added that those present at the location agreed to the break.
According to him, they returned about 15 to 20 minutes later, but by around 21:30hrs, they stated they were still tired and announced the suspension of the tabulation and verification process.
“We [all of the party representatives] objected to that. When Lowenfield introduced the ladies to us, he said that we would work throughout the night to complete Region Four. These ladies were now saying that they were closing it off until the next morning at 9 a.m. I don’t recall any objections from the APNU+AFC representatives. There may have been, but I would not be able to say if they did,” Yearwood recounted.
Yearwood testified that everyone objected loudly to the suspension, prompting Lowenfield to enter and explain that the ladies were tired and the process would be suspended.
He said they reminded Lowenfield of his promise to continue throughout the night, after which Lowenfield assured them that he would find staff members to continue the process.
SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY
According to Yearwood, GECOM’s Information Technology Officer Enrique Livan and another young man, whose name he could not recall, then replaced the two women.
Yearwood said that during the tabulation process for Region Four, Guyana’s most populous electoral district, Livan was specifically accused of altering the figures stored on a flash drive.
Yearwood added: “The young man, whose name I don’t know, worked the computer. Mr Livan was calling out the figures from the SoPs. Those figures were once again not correct, according to the laptop that I was looking into. And once again, the objections at this point were much louder, and they only managed to do four SoPs. All four of those SoPs had wrong figures being called.”
Yearwood testified that those who raised objections included Singh and Parag of the PPP/C, himself, and representatives from several other political parties.
He recalled that after a short while, Livan and the other young man assisting with the tabulation said they were tired and would suspend the process until the following morning.
According to him, they objected to this decision, reminding them of Lowenfield’s earlier promise to work through the night. He emphasised, “Remember, Region Four was the only region that had not submitted results. The whole nation was waiting for Region Four to be completed. So, it was important to get it done as early as possible.”
Yearwood testified that despite their objections, Livan and his colleague began packing up to leave. He recalled that Livan removed the flash drive from the laptop, while the other young man packed up the SoPs.
“We were objecting to it because we wanted the process to continue. We were prepared to work throughout the night… All of the party agents were objecting at this point. They did not respond to our objections. They just did what they had to do and left,” he told the court.
Yearwood recounted that sometime later, one of the party agents noticed Livan inside a nearby room with a laptop, appearing to work on something.
“We all rushed over to see what he was doing,” he told the court. “When I got into the room, I saw Mr Livan sitting at a desk with a flash drive on the table next to the laptop. There were two young ladies in the room as well, along with about 20 other people—party agents, local observers, and other political representatives.”
The witness told the court that while he did not personally see Livan doing anything with the flash drive, others at the scene told him that Livan had been working with it.
He stated that Livan strongly denied altering any figures on the flash drive, which sparked a heated exchange between him and those present.
“After a while, Livan got quiet and just rested his head on the desk,” he recalled. He said it was sometime later that then Regional Division Four ‘A’ Commander, Senior Superintendent of Police Edgar Thomas—now an Assistant Commissioner—arrived at the location.
“He [Thomas] told us that if he took the flash drive, the counting process would have to stop until the police investigation was concluded. So, Mr Lowenfield suggested that he take the flash drive and put it into the laptop to see where we were at.”
“When Mr Lowenfield plugged the flash drive into the verification laptop, Mr Livan opened a screen and it came up with South Georgetown area—East Ruimveldt… which he had not started to do as yet, and there were already figures inputted into that. That area had not been verified as yet, so there should not have been any figures on that. He [Livan] tried to shut it off quickly, and then he opened up the East Bank area, which we were working.”
Yearwood said that after the screen displaying the East Ruimveldt data was quickly closed, he and several other party representatives insisted that Livan reopen it.
Yearwood said that initially Livan claimed he could not return to the screen, but with assistance offered by the PPP/C’s IT personnel, Livan was able to reopen it. Once the screen was restored, Yearwood said he took photographs of the data being displayed.
The witness stated that he imagined this must have been a very embarrassing moment for Livan. He recalled that Lowenfield then announced the suspension of the process until 09:00hrs the next morning.
He recalled that at that point, the party agents requested Lowenfield to provide a printout of all the areas that had been completed, and Lowenfield complied.
The trial continues this morning with further testimony from Minister Parag, while Yearwood is scheduled to complete his testimony at a later date.
BACKGROUND
In the weeks that followed the March 2, 2020, vote, Guyana’s judiciary was inundated with multiple applications and appeals filed by various political actors over the electoral process.
The saga lasted five months before a national recount, led by GECOM and a delegation from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), confirmed the PPP/C’s victory and ultimately led to the swearing-in of President Dr. Irfaan Ali on August 2, 2020.
The recount confirmed that the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes against the APNU+AFC coalition’s 217,920.
The initial elections results, announced by former CEO Lowenfield, claimed an APNU+AFC victory.
The APNU+AFC coalition received 171,825 votes, while the PPP/C received 166,343 votes, according to Lowenfield’s election report.
Following the PPP/C’s return to office in August 2020, criminal charges were filed against the defendants.
GECOM made the decision to terminate the contracts of Lowenfield, Myers, and Mingo in August 2021, after the allegations of fraud came to light.