BY no surprise, the morning session of Day 16 of the Commission of Inquiry into matters surrounding the 2020 elections in Guyana was brought to an early close when Carol Smith-Joseph, Volda Lawrence, and Dr Karen Cummings exercised their right of silence.

The trio are integral to the 2020 elections as two of them are currently before the courts on elections-related charges. Those two are Volda Lawrence who was the former Public Health Minister, and Carol Smith-Joseph, an activist for then coalition APNU+AFC which has now dissolved.

Lawrence was implicated after her signature appeared on a document purporting to be an official declaration of the Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) tabulation. Her signature was alongside that of contentious former GECOM employee, Clairmont Mingo. Mingo is also before the court on elections-related charges.

That declaration was the subject of widespread condemnation. During the 2020 general and regional election, Dr Karen Cummings, who was then the Foreign Affairs Minister, had called a meeting of the international observers at GECOM’s Region Four operations at Ashmin’s Building where she hinted at the accreditation of the observers being taken away.

The observers were stunned, and concern was immediately raised by the now-late former Prime Minister of Barbados Owen Arthur who was then leading the Commonwealth Observer Mission.