THE election fraud trial continued on Tuesday with Registrar of the Supreme Court of Judicature Sueanna Lovell tendering hundreds of Statements of Recount (SoRs) from Guyana’s 10 electoral districts.
The documents were presented as prosecutors continued leading documentary evidence relating to the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.
The SoRs, which covered both the general and regional elections, were formally tendered and admitted into evidence before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
The trial is scheduled to continue today.
Last month, the court examined SoPs in batches of 100. During those proceedings, Lovell testified that the election records had remained in her custody pursuant to an order issued by then Chief Justice Roxane George, SC.
The latest development comes a day after Police Inspector Nigel Stephens, attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, continued identifying certified copies of Statements of Poll (SoPs) from Regions Four, Five and Six.
Stephens had testified that he was able to identify the election documents based on markings and signatures he had placed on them during a verification exercise conducted in 2021.
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 Lovell. According to his testimony, he had been instructed to verify certified copies of SoPs and SoRs connected to the 2020 elections.
During that exercise, the records were examined, marked and subsequently secured. Stephens told the court that the documents were stored in safes within a designated storage area and remained protected while in custody. He further testified that neither the keys nor combinations to the safes were shared with others, and that the records were not tampered with while under his watch.

On Monday, prosecutors tendered additional batches of certified SoPs from the regional elections offices in Districts Four, Five and Six. Stephens identified the documents, confirmed the authenticity of his markings and signatures, and the records were admitted into evidence.
The prosecution has been seeking to establish the authenticity and chain of custody of the election documents, which are regarded as critical pieces of evidence in the case. The SoPs contain the vote counts recorded at polling stations on March 2, 2020, while the SoRs reflect the results generated during the national recount process.
The trial centres on allegations of fraud in relation to the tabulation and declaration of results from the 2020 General and Regional Elections, a process that triggered months of political uncertainty before a final declaration was made five months after polling day.
Among those on trial are former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, former Deputy Chief Elections Officer 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 facing charges are former GECOM employees Michelle Miller, Sheffern February, Enrique Livan and Denise Babb-Cummings.
The nine defendants collectively face 19 charges, including conspiracy to defraud and misconduct in public office. They have all pleaded not guilty and are currently on bail.
The prosecution, led by King’s Counsel Darshan Ramdhani, alleges that the accused were involved in efforts to inflate votes in favour of the then A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition while reducing votes cast for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Following a national recount supervised by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and months of legal challenges, the PPP/C was declared the winner of the elections with 233,336 votes compared to APNU+AFC’s 217,920 votes. President Dr. Irfaan Ali was sworn into office on August 2, 2020.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the elections later found that there had been collusion among senior GECOM officials aimed at diverting votes to the APNU+AFC rather than protecting the integrity of the electoral process.