APNU candidate denies 2020 election rigging, but 5 years later still hiding 2020 SoPs

In a bold public statement on Saturday, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) newly-minted candidate Attorney Dexter Todd challenged critics to “bring the facts” regarding allegations of the party’s involvement in election rigging attempts in the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

This is despite his party’s continued stubborn refusal to release its own evidence of the purported “facts” – such as the Statements of Polls (SOPs) – that it won those elections. Speaking at a public meeting in Bagotville, Todd vehemently denied any wrongdoing by the APNU, regurgitating the narrative that the coalition attempted to rob Guyana of democracy in 2020 is a lie.
“They want to say that the APNU rigged the last elections—bring your facts,” Todd said to the gathering. “The lies they have been telling you is that the APNU must account to you for robbing this country of democracy. That is a lie, that is a lie. We must be bold enough to tell them if they have the facts, bring the facts.”
Ironically, Todd’s pleas comes even as the APNU and its former coalition partner, the Alliance For Change (AFC), have for over five years refused to release their SOPs, documents that they have repeatedly claimed prove their electoral victory in 2020. In the wake of the now-infamous Region Four vote tabulation led by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, who declared inflated results in favour of APNU+AFC, the coalition insisted that Mingo’s numbers were consistent with their own SOPs. In 2020, Mingo initially reported Region Four results with 136,057 votes for APNU+AFC and 77,231 for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), figures later found to be false.
However, following international pressure and a full recount that was agreed to by People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) leader David Granger, certified results from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) revealed that the PPP/C had garnered 80,920 votes in Region Four, while APNU+AFC gained 116,941 votes. Nationally, the recount showed PPP/C securing 233,336 votes and APNU+AFC trailing with 217,920, a clear loss for the APNU+AFC by 15,416 votes.
Describing the situation in 2020, then Head of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Bruce Golding declared that he had never seen such a “transparent effort to alter the results of an election”.
Following the official declaration for Region Four showing numbers grossly different from what was fraudulently declared by Mingo, there was public outcry for the APNU+AFC to release the SOPs in their possession to show that it contradicted the official numbers for Region Four. However, all representatives for the two parties have doggedly refused to “bring the evidence.”
Despite the official results, a Commission of Inquiry (COI) and multiple electoral fraud charges laid against Mingo and eight others, the APNU+AFC coalition continue to insist it was victorious, despite continuing to withhold the very SOPs it claims support that claim. Further undermining the coalition’s credibility is a damning revelation by Samuel Sandy, Region Four Vice Chairman and former APNU+AFC East Coast Campaign Manager. In a recent interview, Sandy publicly stated that he personally recorded the scores from SOPs collected in 2020 and found them to be in direct contradiction to the fraudulent figures declared by Mingo.
“In 2020, the APNU/AFC lost the election. I was the Operations Manager for the East Coast campaign. I was responsible for collecting all SOPs. And I did take it upon myself to record the scores of every SOP received,” Sandy stated on the Starting Point Podcast. “I took pictures. I kept them. I still have them. I went to the Ashmin’s Building. I listened to the numbers being tabulated. I looked at my numbers and thought to myself, where might this be going?” Sandy recounted.
According to Sandy, he had to make a choice between doing the right thing or going along with the charade. He noted that in addition to his youth and inexperience with senior leadership, other factors that forced him to stay quiet at the time was the fact that he lived in Golden Grove, a PNC/R stronghold.
However, he claimed that he wrote to the party leader, Aubrey Norton, urging him to be honest about APNU+AFC’s loss at the last election.
“I think at that point it was more making a decision between supporting hope of our large section of society and that of personal integrity. I chose the former. And I challenge anyone to tell me different, because like I said, I have dated, photo evidence of what I submitted, as opposed to what Mingo declared.”
“I live in Golden Grove, a stronghold of the PNC. How can I go home and say hey, I just informed them of the numbers declared, weren’t the actual numbers I shared with the party. I have always been [scared to speak out]. But I’ve made peace with myself and I can say that now. So, it doesn’t matter where it goes,” Sandy added.
Nonetheless, APNU continues to insist it did not lose the election while offering no evidence to back its claim, and challenging that critics “bring facts.”
The ongoing fraud trial involves nine defendants, including former APNU/AFC Health Minister Volda Lawrence, former GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, former GECOM’s Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo, and former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, all of whom are charged with conspiracy to commit electoral fraud in favour of the APNU/AFC coalition.