Mingo asks High Court to order his immediate release from Police custody

– Mingo’s constitutional rights were not breached – Police Force
– says lawyer was unprofessional

Acting Chief Justice Rishi Persaud will, today at 10:0h, hear an application by embattled Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, who has asked the court to order the Police to immediately release him from custody, where he has been held since Tuesday pending investigations into electoral fraud.

By way of writ of habeas corpus, Mingo’s lawyers, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who is one of the Coalition’s Members of Parliament, and Darren Wade moved to the High Court asking that their client be immediately released from Police custody. Mingo is still employed with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) as the Registration Officer for Region 5.
Mingo’s wife, Waveney Mingo, who retained the lawyers, argues that the Police are in breach of her husband’s constitutional rights to his liberty, as guaranteed by virtue of Article 144 of the Constitution of Guyana, and that he has been held without lawful excuse, which is a violation of his constitutional rights.
The woman argues that his arrest and continued detention is unlawful, unconstitutional, and an abuse of power. She further argues that unless the Commissioner of Police, Nigel Hoppie, is directed to forthwith release her husband, who resides at Lot 13 Little Abary, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara, her husband will suffer gross violations of his guaranteed and protected constitutional rights for a protracted period of time.

According to the lawyers, although their client was arrested purportedly on fraud allegations, he was never told of any such allegations, neither was he told of his right to a lawyer. Against this backdrop, they are adamant that their client has committed no fraud of any sort, and that his arrest and detention are politically motivated.
In an affidavit seen by this publication, Waveney Mingo said that when she visited her husband, he appeared very timid, afraid, depressed, stressed and confused, and did not appear as the same person to whom she has been married for 23 years.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Police Force in a statement on Thursday categorically refuted repeated allegations made in the media by lawyers for Mingo, to the effect that his constitutional rights were breached. In fact, the Police have said this assertion is far from the truth. The Police said that shortly after Mingo arrived at the Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters (CID), Eve Leary, Georgetown on Tuesday, Wade turned up and demanded an immediate conference with Mingo, whom he said was his client.

According to the missive, the Police rank on duty directed the lawyer to a designated area where access to his client would be granted after the rank had completed making the necessary entries in the Police records. However, instead of waiting in the area indicated, and without any explanation, Wade immediately left the CID Headquarters compound and met with several members of the media on the roadway, where he spoke with them, during which he proceeded to make some false allegations.
Noteworthy, however, the police stated, is the fact that after this, Wade returned into the CID Headquarters, where he met with Mingo. The Guyana Police Force stated that while it remains ready, able and willing to engage with members of the legal profession to ensure that the constitutional rights of those persons they represent are respected at all times, there is due process.

In this regard, the Police Force said it expects that attorneys-at-law conduct themselves in a professional manner and with a due sense of responsibility, in keeping with the ethical standard required of the legal profession. Unfortunately, that expected level of professionalism was not evident in this instance, the Police noted.
Finally, the Police further noted that there are designated areas at Police locations which allow for privileged conversations. Consequently, the statement added, members of the public and of the legal profession who engage members of the Police Force at any Police location ought to follow the directions of any Police rank/ranks on duty as those relate to access to persons in Police custody.
Contacted on Thursday for a response to the Police’s statement, Wade said, “My attorney will be instituting legal proceedings against the State for defamation of character.” He refused to give any further comment on the matter.

Other arrests
Also, arrested by the Police were four election officials who worked closely with Mingo. They were taken into Police custody this week. The persons of interest have been identified as 42-year-old Carolyn Duncan, a Registration Officer attached to the Better Hope, East Coast Demerara Office of the Elections Commission.

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.
On Thursday, Police arrested an Information Technology staff attached to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Enrique Livan. Livan was previously questioned by Police on the evening of March 4, 2020 when the tabulation of votes for District Four at the Office of the Returning Officer was obstructed.
Party agents and other observers became suspicious when Livan, after complaining of feeling tired and wanting to conclude the tabulation process, left the room with a flash drive and computer – both of which were being used during the tabulation process.
In the meantime, Guyana Times understands that more persons would be detained for questioning as the investigation continues.

Electoral fraud
Mingo attempted to give the APNU/AFC 25,000 votes that the party did not gain at the elections. He attempted to do so by using spreadsheets and not the Statements of Polls to tabulate the votes for Region 4, Guyana’s largest voting district. But by then the PPP/C had already gained a huge lead in the other nine regions to compensate for the votes the party lost in Region 4.
The PPP/C won the 2020 General and Regional Elections by over 15,000 votes. The APNU/AFC government was refusing to accept defeat, and had been accused of attempting to undermine the will of the people. Last Friday, the Police Force announced that it was investigating alleged criminal conduct by Mingo and others, including Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, who is currently facing private criminal fraud charges.
It was Mingo’s attempts to alter the results of the elections that led to the National Recount exercise, which ultimately proved the major differences in the figures being called by the Returning Officer and the actual numbers of votes cast.
The difference was noted by the Head of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Guyana, Bruce Golding, who had stated that he had never seen such a “transparent effort to alter the results of an election”.
The international community had continuously urged the APNU/AFC to accept defeat at the polls, and had warned that any government sworn in based on non-credible elections results would face serious consequences and sanctions.
In fact, the United States began by revoking the visas of Government officials it blamed for refusing to hand over power to the PPP/C following the recount of all ballots cast in the elections. The APNU/AFC had even moved to the court to invalidate the votes tabulated during the recount exercise.
All of its bids failed, with its supporters who instituted the proceedings ending up having to pay out millions in court costs.