THE election fraud trial of former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield and others continued Wednesday before Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, with the prosecution presenting a video recording of his 2020 police interview and testimony from key witnesses.

The former Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) employee, is, among other things, accused of falsifying declarations during the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.

On Wednesday, the court heard from Sergeant Alwyn Jones, who is attached to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), testify about a video interview he’d recorded back in 2020.

The interview, conducted by two senior police officers, lasted for hours.

Jones explained that after capturing the session on video, he returned to the crime ‘lab’ where he burned the footage onto a compact disk (CD), marked it for identification, and made several copies.

He then prepared a written statement, which was handed over to ASP Pitamber, the investigating officer.

On Tuesday, Jones identified his markings before the discs were tendered and played in court.

In the video, Lowenfield was informed of the allegations against him and was read his rights by ASP Pitamber: “You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so. But whatever you say may be put into writing and given in evidence [in a court of law].”

Lowenfield was also asked if he understood why he was there and if he was comfortable and had eaten, to each of which he replied in the affirmative.

ASP Pitamber had confronted Lowenfield with the allegations during the recorded interview at the CID Headquarters back in August 2020.

During the interview, Pitamber informed Lowenfield that between March 5 and March 13, 2020, at the Ashmins Building on High and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown, and at the Guyana Elections Commission Headquarters in Kingston, he was alleged to have conspired with others to fraudulently inflate the votes cast for the then incumbent A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.

He added that this was allegedly done while reducing those of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the then opposition party.

The officer further alleged, “On March 13, 2020, you again inflated votes cast for APNU+AFC by 19,137, and decreased the PPP/C’s votes by 3,656, while the correct figures taken from the Statements of Poll revealed 116,950 votes for APNU+AFC and 80,887 votes for the PPP/C.”

Pitamber also put to Lowenfield that, by uttering forged documents, specifically the declarations for Region Four, and by falsifying votes, he had committed misconduct in public office.

When asked if he had anything to say in response to these allegations, Lowenfield replied, simply: “I have no comment.” Asked again, he said, “I am not going to answer; I have nothing to say.”

And, in response to a series of questions regarding his conduct during the 2020 polls, Lowenfield again stuck to his guns, saying, “No comment; I choose not to answer.”

The court was also shown a video of the police confrontation between Lowenfield and Anieshaw Mohamed, who is also a witness in the case, and was present during the 2020 elections tabulation.

Lowenfield was grilled about the discrepancies in the Statements of Poll and the declarations, but opted to remain silent.

The trial will continue this morning.

Those facing charges include Carol Smith-Joseph of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R), former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, former Health Minister under the APNU+AFC government Volda Lawrence, former Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers, and Clairmont Mingo.

Also charged are former GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.

Collectively, they face 19 charges, and are represented by a robust defence team. The defence team includes lawyers Nigel Hughes, Dexter Todd, Darren Wade, Ronald Daniels, and Eusi Anderson.

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 Ramdhani, argued that each defendant played a “critical role” in the deliberate effort to inflate votes for the APNU+AFC and reduce votes for the 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 won the elections with 233,336 votes against the APNU+AFC coalition’s 217,920.

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

The APNU+AFC coalition 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