–when voir dire continues Monday

THE high-profile electoral fraud case arising from Guyana’s controversial 2020 general and regional elections is set to continue on Monday, October 27 at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, with a series of witnesses being called to testify in a voir dire before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty.

The case has attracted international attention, with several high-ranking former officials facing serious charges, including misconduct in public office, conspiracy to defraud, and uttering forged documents.

Among the accused are former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo; former Health Minister Volda Lawrence; People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) activist Carol Smith-Joseph; former GECOM CEO Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers; and GECOM staff Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.

Prosecutors allege that the defendants attempted to inflate votes in favour of the APNU+AFC coalition to subvert the democratic process.

During hearing on Thursday, a voir dire (trial within a trial) was called to determine the admissibility of evidence of the video-recorded interviews submitted as evidence concerning Mingo.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Officer Sheldon Harvey testified during the voir dire about the evidence.  

The matter was adjourned until Monday, when Deputy Crime Chief Superintendent Mitchell Caesar and Assistant Superintendent Nigel Stevens is expected to testify in the voir dire before going back on to the main trial.

The State’s case includes extensive documentary evidence such as flash drives containing Statements of Poll (SoPs) and Statements of Recount (SoRs), 73 witness statements, and a trove of official records.

The prosecution team is led by Special Prosecutors Darshan Ramdhani, KC, and Thomas Astaphan, KC, supported by Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat and State counsel from the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Office.

The defence is represented by a legal team that includes Nigel Hughes, Eusi Anderson, Ronald Daniels, and Dexter Todd.

The prosecution alleges that the accused inflated or facilitated the inflation of results for Region Four, Guyana’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC coalition an illegitimate victory in the March 2020 elections. Official results later confirmed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won by over 15,000 votes.

Initially, former CEO Lowenfield had submitted an election report claiming APNU+AFC had received 171,825 votes while the PPP/C secured 166,343.

However, a national recount—conducted under the supervision of GECOM and a high-level Caribbean Community (CARICOM) team—determined that APNU+AFC had actually received 217,920 votes, while the PPP/C had won with 233,336 votes.

The recount process also revealed that Mingo had allegedly manipulated the Region Four results to keep the APNU+AFC caretaker administration in power.

This led to GECOM’s decision in August, 2021, to terminate Lowenfield, Myers, and Mingo.

Since charges were first filed in late 2020, multiple postponements have stalled the case, primarily due to requests from the defence. The accused remains out on cash bail as the trial continues.

The trial has faced numerous delays due to objections and applications by the defence.

In April, 2023, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections found that there was collusion and collaboration among senior GECOM officials to divert votes to the APNU +AFC, instead of safeguarding and preserving the integrity of the electoral system.

Chairman Stanley John and commissioners — former Chancellor Carl Singh and Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith — made those findings on the basis of evidence from the many witnesses who had testified, along with the reports of the international observers.

“…our inquiry reveals that there were, in fact, shockingly brazen attempts by Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo, to derail and corrupt the statutorily prescribed procedure for the counting, ascertaining and tabulation of votes of the March 2nd election, as well as the true declaration of the results of that election, and that they did so – to put it in unvarnished language of the ordinary man – for the purpose of stealing the election,” the commissioners said in their report.

The report found that Lowenfield blatantly made decisions and employed procedures in direct contradiction to the law and the will of the people.

The findings revealed, too, that GECOM staffers ignored specific instructions from the court, used materials that were illegal and/or manipulated and sided with APNU+AFC agents to berate observers whenever objections were raised.

After careful scrutiny, the CoI commissioners concluded that there was a conscious and deliberate – even brazen – effort to violate the provisions of section 84(1) of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA).

In so doing, certain “senior GECOM officials” abandoned all need for neutrality and impartiality and demonstrated a bias for the APNU+AFC and, in the course of events over those days, showed an “open connection” with that party, and by their efforts sought a desired result for the coalition.

As such, the commissioners said that after consideration and analysis of the evidence, Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers “were principally responsible for clear and deliberate attempts to frustrate, obstruct and subvert the ascertainment of votes in electoral district No. 4.”