Election CoI: GECOM’s security chief recalls rejecting orders to remove observers, party agents from Ashmin’s building

…says he felt he was being “set up” by Roxanne Myers

On Wednesday, the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 2020 General and Regional Elections heard shocking testimony from the security chief for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), that efforts were afoot to empty the Command Centre (Ashmin’s building) of party agents and observers, even before reports of a bomb threat surfaced.

Taking the stand on Wednesday was Ronald Stewart, who was in charge of security for GECOM during that fateful period. It has previously been recounted that senior officials in GECOM and the police tried to have Ashmin’s building, where the Region 4 tabulation was taking place, cleared owing to an alleged bomb threat.
However, Stewart told the CoI that then GECOM Deputy Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Roxanne Myers had asked him to clear Ashmin’s building even before that threat. According to him, the excuse made was that party agents were interfering with GECOM’s work. Based on his observations, however, this did not seem to be the case nor did Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo communicate this to him.
“She (Myers) told me, she instructed me to go into the tabulation center and get everybody to come out of the building…she didn’t say who she meant, but she said everybody. She said that they were interfering with the work of the Returning Officer, Mr Mingo. There were observers there.
“There was the American Ambassador, the British and Canadian High Commissioners, the EU and Caricom observer missions and local observers, too… I told her, that that instruction was inappropriate and I’m not going to carry it out. That was the first instruction. She said okay and terminated the call,” Stewart recalled.

Bomb threat
The next time Stewart said he received instructions to evacuate Ashmin’s building, it was approximately 15 minutes later when Police Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) entered the building and told him that they received information that there was a bomb in the building.

He recalled that Assistant Police Commissioner Edgar Thomas went into the tabulation room to tell the persons present about the bomb threat and asked them to leave. Stewart recalled that when Thomas emerged, the senior Police Officer had said that everyone had refused the directions to leave. According to Stewart, recalling the words of those in the tabulation center, “They said plain, they’re not moving. Let the bomb blow and kill them. We want to see what Mr Mingo is doing.”
Stewart said that on his part, one reason he refused to comply with instructions to clear out of the building was because it was apparent that GECOM officers intended to remain behind in the building when all the party agents and observers had left, despite the supposed emergency of the ‘bomb’. Eventually, he said, Myers approached him again and instructed him to clear out the building.
“She said to me, Mr. Stewart, you’re sitting there and a bomb is planted in the building? Please get the people to evacuate… I again refused. I felt that those people in there were accredited, they were invited and if Ms Myers wanted them out, she should have been the person to go in there and tell them to come out…They were invited by GECOM hierarchy and if GECOM hierarchy wanted them out, they should go and tell them to leave and not try to set me up!”
Stewart said that owing to his repeated refusals to follow what he believed were unjustified instructions from GECOM and be ‘set up’, he knew his days at the Secretariat were numbered. Accordingly, Stewart resigned the next day, March 6, before he could be fired. He was only rehired this year, after reapplying when the position became vacant.

Police prevented court marshal
Also taking the stand on Wednesday was Rawle Aaron, who worked as a party agent for the United Republican Party (URP) during the tabulation. He recalled seeing Police Officers physically preventing a marshal from serving a court order on Returning Officer Mingo to stop the count that was being done from spreadsheets no one else had seen, instead of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) that should have been used.
“The process that was being used was that the count was now being called from a spreadsheet and not the SoPs… we began to protest, along with other party members, that they were using a spreadsheet. And then subsequently, a court marshal came with a notice to stop the count. He was dressed in uniform and he announced that he was from the court and he had a document to stop the count.
“He was prevented from (serving it) by Police Officers there and he could not get to Mr Mingo to serve that. And the count continued. He remained and he kept trying to get to Mr Mingo, to serve the notice. We started to protest and in particular, Mr Anil Nandlall was there and he said to the court representative, you need to go and serve it to him,” Aaron said.
Despite the marshal’s best efforts, Aaron explained that the Police held onto his arms and prevented him from going to serve Mingo with the notice. It took about a half hour of trying before the court marshal was finally allowed to serve the notice, after which Mingo stopped the count.