GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Aug 5, CMC -The trial of nine people, including the former chief elections officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield, accued of electoral fraud in the 2020 general and regional elections, has been adjourned to Wednesday after the magistrate Monday reported ill.
Reporters, who turned up to cover Monday’s sitting of the case following last Wednesday’s adjournment, were informed that the presiding magistrate, was feeling unwell.
So far, only one person, the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag, has testified at the trial that is expected to last at least six weeks.
A section of Parag’s statement was struck from being admitted into evidence in the case after concerns were raised about her mentioning the names of an individual who is not a defendant in the case.
Several witnesses are expected to testified in the case that was adjourned last Wednesday after issues primarily focused on the admissibility of evidence, the accuracy of court records and persons who are not defendants in the case, were raised.
Apart from Lowenfield, the other persons charged are his deputy Roxanne Myers; former returning officer, Clairmont Mingo; and GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.
In addition, former health minister Volda Lawrence and opposition activist, Carol Smith-Joseph, are all accused of a number of offences, including misconduct in public office, uttering forged documents, and plotting to deceive the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes.
It is alleged that the defendants inflated or facilitated the inflation of results for Region Four, the country’s largest voting district, to give the then ruling A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change ( APNU+AFC) coalition a majority win at the controversial presidential and regional elections in March 2020.
All the defendants are on bail.
CMC/gt/ir/2024