Clairmont Mingo – Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) Returning Officer for Electoral District Four (Demerara – Mahaica) – has approached the High Court seeking an order for his immediate from Police custody.
Mingo, along with some staffers of his Secretariat, were arrested in relation to allegations of electoral fraud.
The embattled Returning Officer, by way of writ of habeas corpus, is contesting his “unlawful detention” to the court and has asked that the Commissioner of Police appear before the Judge, for the court to determine whether the detention is lawful.
The proceedings were filed by Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde and lawyer Darren Wade, on behalf of Mingo’s wife, Waveney, who said that the police are in breach of her husband’s fundamental rights and liberty, and that her husband is being detained without lawful excuse.
The matter comes up for hearing today at 13:30hrs before Justice Brassington Reynolds at the High Court in Demerara.
Mingo was arrested on Tuesday at his Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara (ECD) home and escorted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters at Eve Leary, Kingston, where he is being questioned in relation to the well-documented attempts to alter the results of the recently concluded election.
Three election officials who worked closely with Mingo have also been taken into Police custody. One of these officials has been identified as 42-year-old Carolyn Duncan, a registration officer attached to the Better Hope Office of the Elections Commission. She was taken into custody on Tuesday along with Mingo.
According to the Police Force, Duncan was also attached to Mingo’s Secretariat, which was located in the Ashmin’s Building at High and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown. The other two persons are: Sheffern February and Michelle Miller. They were arrested on Wednesday.
