Elections Fraud Case: SoPs & SoRs tendered into evidence

The trial into the 2020 elections fraud case picked up steam on Wednesday as Registrar of the Supreme Court, Sueann Lovell, took the stand, and the Statement of Polls (SoPs) from the March 2, 2020 elections were officially entered into evidence at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Making her first appearance in the trial, Lovell was the only witness for the day as the case continued before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty. During Lovell’s testimony, the prosecution was able to tender the SoPs for Regions One to Four, with the continuation of the tendering expected to occur when Lovell returns to the stand on Friday.

On Thursday, the trial will continue from 09:00h, with Inspector Nigel Stephens expected to take the stand to testify about certified copies of the electoral documents. Lovell is expected to return to court on Friday.
There was a total of 2339 polling stations for the 2020 General and Regional Elections (GRE), resulting in 2339 SoPs and 2339 Statements of Recount (SoRs).
It was back in January 2021 that the High Court ordered the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to transfer all original SoPs and SoRs from the 2020 elections to the custody of the High Court for safekeeping and as official evidence.
The documents were delivered to the High Court by former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, in the presence of GECOM Chairperson Claudette Singh. Lowenfield is one of the defendants currently charged in the case.
Lovell testified to the strict chain of custody that the documents were under. “We went through a verification process of what exactly was being handed over to me by checking all of the documents. As they were handed over, records were created which detailed what the documents were that I was receiving, and once I had verified all of those particulars, I signed as receiving while Mr Lowenfield affixed his signature as the person handing over,” Lovell testified.
The documents were ordered to be handed over, given that the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) allows the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) to destroy all election documents after a 12-month period has elapsed.
Since then, the original electoral documents have been physically secured in the High Court vault under the sole control of the Supreme Court Registrar. Lovell testified that the documents remained solely under her control. Since receipt, the documents have been kept secure in two fireproof cabinets located in her office, Lovell testified.
“After receiving documents, I secured them in two fire-safe cabinets that had been procured for that purpose and that were in my office. Those cabinets are secured by combination locks as well as keys. After I secured the documents in those cabinets, I locked them with the keys and the combination, and I am the only person who has the combination to those locks and who possesses the keys since that time,” Lovell noted.
In May 2021, copies of the original SoPs and SoRs were made and handed over to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) as evidence in the election fraud case. During the handing over of the copies to the police, an audit process was conducted to ensure that the copies handed over were an exact match to the original documents held by the registrar.
Lowenfield is one of nine persons charged with conspiracy to commit electoral fraud in relation to the tabulation of votes for Region Four in the 2020 GRE.
Those charged include former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers; former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo; former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Minister Volda Lawrence; former APNU+AFC Chief Scrutineer Carol Smith-Joseph; and former Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) employees Enrique Livan, Sheffern February, Michelle Miller, and Denise Bobb-Cummings.