Election fraud case: Chief Magistrate orders restart of trial; submissions to be filed by Jan 6, 2025

Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty on Monday ordered a restart in the election fraud trial and instructed that all submissions be filed by January 6, 2025.
At the hearing at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, McGusty requested defence attorney Nigel Hughes to file written submissions regarding the mode of trial. Hughes indicated his preference for the matters to proceed as indictable.
On the other hand, Special Prosecutor, King’s Counsel Darshan Ramdhani has called for a summary trial in these proceedings and would have addressed this at length.

Nevertheless, the acting Chief Magistrate will rule on the mode of trial on January 13, 2025.
When the matter was called on December 8 last, Ramdhani had argued that a restart was completely unnecessary and that all the court needed to do was to recall the witnesses. On the other hand, Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes pressed for a fresh start to the already delayed trial.
Nine persons are before the court regarding electoral fraud. They are former Returning Officer for Region Four, Clairmont Mingo; former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield; his former Deputy, Roxanne Myers; former People’s National Congress/ Reform (PNC/R) Chairperson Volda Lawrence; PNCR activist Carol Smith-Joseph; and Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Michelle Miller and Denise Babb-Cummings.
They are facing 28 charges relating to electoral fraud. Among the offences these defendants are accused of committing are: misconduct while holding public office; presenting falsified documentation; and planning to manipulate Guyana’s voters by presenting an inaccurate vote total.
In her testimony as a witness, Parag had recalled acts of misconduct she witnessed from GECOM staff during the 2020 General and Regional Elections. Her testimony included witnessing efforts by GECOM staff to alter the results by deducting People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) votes and adding votes to the then-ruling A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC).
She had also testified that despite a Court Order from acting Chief Justice Roxane George which compelled GECOM to use only the Statements of Poll (SOPs) to tabulate the numbers for the Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) votes, Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, one of those now on trial, continued to conduct the tabulation using a projector and bedsheet.
When Magistrate Daly had presided over the case, the prosecution, led by KC Ramdhani, had complained that witnesses were not being allowed to freely testify as they should. At the last hearing, before she came down with her illness, Magistrate Daly had acknowledged that not allowing certain testimony was indeed an error. As such, she had permitted the reopening of the examination of the witness, Minister Parag.