POLICE Inspector Nigel Stephens on Monday continued identifying certified copies of Statements of Poll (SoPs) from the March 2020 General and Regional Elections as the election fraud trial resumed before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
The court examined documents from Regions Four, Five and Six during the proceedings.
Stephens, who is attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, returned to the witness stand and identified certified copies of regional election SoPs based on markings and signatures he had previously placed on the documents during a verification exercise.
The court previously heard that Stephens first came into contact with the certified election records on May 29, 2021, when he visited the Supreme Court of Judicature and met with Registrar of the Supreme Court Sueanna Lovell.
During earlier testimony, Stephens explained that he had gone to the court under instructions and informed Lovell of the purpose of his visit, after which a verification exercise commenced involving certified copies of SoPs and Statements of Recount (SoRs) linked to the 2020 elections.
He testified that following the verification process, the certified copies were collected and secured. According to Stephens, the documents were placed in safes within a designated storage area and remained protected. He also informed the court that neither the keys nor combinations to the safes were shared with others and that neither he nor anyone in his presence tampered with the election records.
On Monday, prosecutors presented additional batches of certified SoPs, including documents from the regional elections in Districts Four, Five and Six. Stephens identified the records based on his markings and confirmed that the signatures and certification markings appearing on the documents were his.
The documents were formally tendered by the prosecution, identified by the witness, marked as exhibits and admitted into evidence by the court.
The trial is scheduled to continue today at 09:30hrs.
The examination of the election records forms part of the prosecution’s efforts to establish the authenticity and chain of custody of documents being tendered as evidence in the case.
Last month, the court reviewed SoPs in batches of 100. Certified copies of the documents were tendered by Registrar Sueanna Lovell, who testified that the records had remained in her custody pursuant to an order issued by then Chief Justice Roxane George, SC.
The court previously heard that the election documents were securely stored in safes following judicial directions and that Lovell was responsible for maintaining custody of the records.
The SoPs are regarded as key pieces of evidence in the trial because they contain the vote counts recorded at polling stations during the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
The election fraud trial centres on allegations surrounding the tabulation and declaration of results from the 2020 polls, a process that led to months of political uncertainty before a final declaration was made five months after election day.
Those on trial include former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, former Health Minister Volda Lawrence and People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member Carol Smith-Joseph. Also, before the court are former GECOM employees Michelle Miller, Sheffern February, Enrique Livan and Denise Babb-Cummings.
The defendants collectively face 19 charges, including conspiracy to defraud and misconduct in public office. All have pleaded not guilty and were released on cash bail.
The prosecution, led by King’s Counsel Darshan Ramdhani, contends that the accused played critical roles in efforts to inflate votes in favour of the then APNU+AFC coalition while reducing votes cast for the PPP/C.
Following a five-month period of litigation and a Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-supervised national recount, the PPP/C was declared the winner of the elections with 233,336 votes to APNU+AFC’s 217,920. President Dr. Irfaan Ali was subsequently sworn into office on August 2, 2020.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the elections later concluded that there had been collusion and collaboration among senior GECOM officials to divert votes to the APNU+AFC rather than safeguard the integrity of the electoral process.
