2020 elections fraud case: Shuman testifies to walking in on GECOM staff printing pre-filled vote sheets

Testimony in the ongoing elections fraud case continued on Monday morning at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts with former Presidential Candidate of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Lenox Shuman testifying to walking in on several Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) staff printing out what appeared to be a spreadsheet with manipulated elections results for Region Four when tabulation of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections was ongoing. Shuman specifically identified former GECOM staffer and co-accused Enrique Livan as the individual seated at the computer from which the spreadsheet was being printed.

In his testimony, he stated that there was also another GECOM staff at the printer and another sitting on the floor. Election agents had made their way into the room after breaking down the door when suspicions were raised about the activity taking place in the room. “I Saw Mr Livan was in front of the computer in a typing motion, there was a flash drive in the computer… when I followed the people that breached the door. Mr Livan seated at the computer… there was a printer actively printing paper. There was a GECOM staff by the printer and a GECOM staff lying on a yoga mat on the floor too. I asked Mr Livan what he was doing,” Shuman noted.

Remained silent
According to Shuman, when Livan was confronted about his activities, he remained silent. Shuman said he then retrieved some of the paper being printed to save as evidence and later handed over the papers to police officers that were summoned.
“On that paper it contained prepopulated numbers for Region Four with all the votes. Mr Livan did not say a word, he closed the computer down, put his head on the desk and said nothing. I called for the police to come and investigate that right away. There were things inconsistent with instructions left by the CEO (Chief Elections Officer) [Keith Lowenfield]. I brought the papers to the attention of the police and gave it to him. A call was then made to Mr Lowenfield for him to return,” Shuman told the court.
Shuman was at the time recounting activities that unfolded between 4 – 5 March, 2020 as the votes cast in Region Four were being tabulated to determine votes allocation to the various political parties. Shuman explained that Livan had taken over the tabulation process just moments prior to being found in the room printing out spreadsheet of the votes allotted to various ballot boxes in the region.

Inconsistencies
He explained that Livan had volunteered to take over the tabulation process after the previous GECOM staff conducting the tabulation indicated that they were tired and could not continue. The then CEO, Keith Lowenfield, agreed to let Livan take over the process, leaving him with instructions on conduct of the process.
However shortly after Livan took over the process, there allegedly began to be inconsistencies between the numbers being called by Livan and the actual numbers that were on the Statement of Polls (SOPs) from the various polling stations.
“When he came into the room, he said he would conduct the process of tabulation and started to display the SOPs projected on the screen. After a few minutes of calling SOPs, he started to make a few errors. [The numbers] he was calling was not consistent with what was being displayed on the SOPs, for example, if there was 251, he would call 257,” Shuman related.
“We [election agents] said that number is incorrect. I observed that the number were inconsistent from what was on our SOPs. I protested and there were others protesting. To which Mr Livan said ‘I am a little tired, I am going to need a break’. I said that the process has to continue. It has to go to its conclusion. It was agreed upon by Mr Lowenfield that this is what is supposed to happen and what we should do.”
Tabulation laptop and flash drive
Shuman alleged that Livan continued to complain of being tired and needing a coffee break, at which point he eventually left the main tabulation area. And it was during this requested coffee break that Livan was allegedly observed entering a side room with the tabulation laptop and a flash drive. It was in this room that Shuman said election agents found Livan printing spread sheet pages.
Following this incident, Shuman said, Livan returned to continue the tabulation in the main area, however when Livan reopened the file previously being used for the tabulation it was noted that the file opened was different from what it looked like when Livan closed it to take his coffee break. According to Shuman, before Livan left, the spreadsheet still had several rows with missing numbers from the SOPs that were still to be displayed and verified, however when Livan returned several of the spreadsheet rows were suddenly already filled.
“When Mr Livan clicked on that drive, we saw the file we were working on. When it was clicked, on a file opened with a pre-populated Region Four spreadsheet completed… there were numbers already populated. During the tabulation process we did not arrive at those numbers as yet. All of the districts represented on the spreadsheet were already populated. I protested to Mr Lowenfield, and Mr Livan hurriedly tried to close that spread sheet,” Shuman testified. He added that Lowenfield said the errors were due to tiredness and he then brought a close to the tabulation process for the night.
“I complained to Mr Lowenfield. He indicated that it may have been done in error. I requested the data for the process up to the point where we concluded earlier. That data was presented to each political party. Mr Lowenfield indicated that Mr Livan was tired and asked that the process continue at 8 o’ clock the next morning,” Shuman remembered. However, the tabulation would never resume that day as the then Region Four Returning Officer (RO) Claremont Mingo attempted to make declarations without the verified tabulation being completed. Shuman was later crossed examined by the defence on Monday afternoon’s session of the case. Livan, Mingo, and Lowenfield, are among nine individuals currently facing 19 charges of conspiracy to commit electoral fraud for the events that occurred following the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
Other persons charged include Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers; former Minister of Health under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition, Volda Lawrence; APNU+AFC Chief Scrutineer, Carol Smith-Joseph; and former GECOM employees Sheffern February, Michelle Miller, and Denise Babb-Cummings.