GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Nov 1, CMC – The Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings, Friday named acting Chief Magistrate, Faith McGusty, to preside over the trial of nine people, including the former chief elections officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield, accused of electoral fraud in the 2020 General and Regional election.
The case had been adjourned on several occasions since it began in July due to the illness of the presiding magistrate Leron Daly, who still remains on sick eave,
When the matter was called in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, the acting Chief Magistrate said the decision was taken to transfer the case given the extensive delays experienced due to the ill health of the presiding Magistrate.
She said as a result, the matter will now have to be restarted.
“The Chancellor was so excited, she asked if the matter could be started today but I don’t believe that we can work that miracle,” the acting Chief Magistrate said.
After a brief consultation with both the prosecution and the defense teams, it was agreed that a Case Management Conference (CMC) will be held on Wednesday, November 6, 2024 to chart the way forward.
At the time the trial had been adjourned, only one person, the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag, had testified at the trial that is expected to last at least six weeks.
Apart from Lowenfield, the other people 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.
Meanwhile, defence attorney Eusi Anderson told the Court that it was important to address some of the issues that arose when the trial initially began. He said one such issue was that of record keeping, and the acting Chief Magistrate used the opportunity to clarify that the Court would use a recording device.
“If something is recorded, it cannot be refuted,” she said, noting that it would make for a speedy trial.
Anderson though not objecting, made it known that the Defense will be making its objections known if hearsay evidence is used to pollute the record.
“What the court would learn, respectfully madam, is that there will be objections as the rules of evidence become, in the last iteration significantly eroded with hearsay evidence being used to pollute the record and we will continue to object to that,” Anderson said.
The Court assured that inadmissible evidence would be disregarded.
CMC/gt/ir/2024