FORMER Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Information Technology Manager, Aneal Giddings, continued his testimony on Tuesday in the 2020 elections fraud trial, giving further evidence about the handling of election documents and differences in results following the national recount.
Giddings told the court that after comparing results from the recount with those previously declared, he observed that the APNU+AFC coalition had approximately 19,000 fewer votes.
The defence objected to that evidence, arguing that the documents supporting the figures should be produced. The prosecution indicated that the relevant documents would be presented later this week, when Giddings is expected to return to identify them.
His evidence followed testimony about events at the Ashmin’s building during the initial tabulation of Statements of Poll in March 2020.
Giddings testified that the tabulation exercise was interrupted on March 5 after police informed officials of a bomb threat and instructed them to evacuate. He said election data was backed up and placed on a flash drive following instructions from then Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers.
He also testified that the tabulation did not resume that day and that Statements of Poll and other documents were secured before he left the building.
Giddings previously told the court that documents later sent to him for publication on GECOM’s website showed differences in vote figures. He said one updated document reflected approximately 400 fewer votes for APNU and about 100 fewer for the PPP, along with a reduction in spoilt ballots.
Turning to the subsequent national recount at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Giddings said he supervised the packing of Statements of Recount after tabulation was completed. The documents were handed over to then Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield and Giddings said he had no further access to them.
He also testified that he was the only person with access to GECOM’s website credentials at the time and uploaded election documents received from then Public Relations Officer Yolanda Warde without altering them.
Giddings is expected to return to court later this week as the prosecution prepares to present additional documents. (NCN News)