— recounts SOP collection, security checks, Mingo’s initial assurances

THE election-fraud trial arising from the disputed March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections continued on Wednesday with detailed testimony from People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) supernumerary agent, Sasenarine Singh, who walked the court through the early hours of the tabulation exercise at the Ashmin’s Building, District Four’s command centre.

The ongoing matter concerns 19 charges—including conspiracy to defraud and misconduct in public office—brought against former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, former APNU+AFC minister Volda Lawrence, PNCR member Carol Smith-Joseph and former GECOM staffers Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings and Michelle Miller.
“I personally saw the SOPs being posted,” Singh told the court that his role on Election Day involved collecting PPP/C polling agents and the sealed yellow envelopes they received at polling stations.

He said that at every location he visited, he personally observed presiding officers posting the Statement of Poll (SOP) outside the station as required by law.

According to him, the documents displayed contained “the polling station’s name, ballot box number, vote tallies for all contesting parties, signatures of observers and the presiding officer, and the unique identification number assigned to each SOP,” along with totals for valid, rejected, spoiled and overall votes.

Singh said he later transported the party’s agents and their SOP packets to Freedom House, where the documents were handed over and remained in his custody in the now-well-known carry-on suitcases.

Singh said he slept briefly at Freedom House before walking up around 12:05 hrs on March 3, 2020.

He testified that he was then instructed by PPP General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo to proceed immediately to the Ashmin’s Building for the tabulation and verification exercise.

Upon arrival, Singh recalled encountering “very heavy police presence” at the north-western corner of the building.

Officers conducted security checks, required GECOM badges, recorded names and addresses, and used airport-style scanners before allowing entry.

Once inside, Singh said he joined a packed room of observers, attorneys and party representatives, including several foreign missions and civil society bodies.

He gave a detailed layout of the room, three long desks in the centre—one occupied by the PPP/C team, another by APNU+AFC representatives, and a third by smaller parties—along with a barricaded area to the east where GECOM staff were stationed.

A large projector screen to the northwest displayed data as it was entered.

Among those present, Singh identified attorneys Sonia Parag, Pauline Chase, Lenox Shuman, Charles Ramson and several international observers.

Singh testified that shortly after 02:00hrs, he observed Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo enter the room and outline the procedure he said would be followed under Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act.

According to Singh, Mingo stated that GECOM staff would: Raise each GECOM SOP for comparison with the parties’ carbon-copy SOPs, call out the votes for each contesting party along with rejected ballots and enter the results into a computer system that would project totals onto the large screen.

At that stage, Singh said, GECOM’s SOPs and the PPP/C’s carbon copies “were matching”, and the process, though slow, was unfolding as expected.

PROCESS HALTED AFTER MORE THAN 12 HOURS

Singh recounted that the tabulation proceeded throughout the day until approximately 9:00 p.m. on March 3, when Mingo announced that staff had been working for more than 12 hours and the exercise would be suspended.

Soon after, cleaning staff entered the room and requested to sweep the area.

“Nobody left,” Singh said, but the woman swept the open spaces and exited. At around 10:45 p.m., Singh said he heard from Myers that Mingo had reportedly fallen ill.

Wednesday’s testimony forms part of the prosecution’s effort to establish what transpired inside the District Four command centre during the contentious tabulation process.

The defendants, represented by a robust legal team, continue to face 19 charges connected to allegations of attempts to inflate or manipulate votes in Guyana’s largest electoral district.

The matter continues on Thursday before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty.

Due to 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.

The prosecution, led by King’s Counsel Darshan Ramdhanie, argued that each defendant played a “critical role” in the deliberate effort to inflate votes for the APNU+AFC and reduce votes for the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).

In the weeks that followed the contentious 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 had won the elections with 233,336 votes against the APNU+AFC coalition’s 217,920.

The initial elections results, announced by former CEO Lowenfield, had claimed an APNU+AFC victory.

The APNU+AFC coalition had 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.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections have found that there were collusion and collaboration between 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 of the Judiciary, Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith made these findings based on evidence from the many witnesses who testified, along with the reports of the international observers.

“…our inquiry reveals that there were, in fact, shockingly brazen attempts by Lowenfield, Myers and 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,” they 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 had 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.”