PNC’s Carol Joseph slapped with forgery, conspiracy to defraud charges

Attempts to rig elections

People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) activist Carol Joseph along with Chairperson Volda Lawrence have been slapped with forgery and conspiracy to defraud, respectively.
The duo was asked on Tuesday to visit the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters to be questioned in relation to their role in the attempts to rig the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections. Following the meeting, they were charged and will be arraigned today at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Last week, Lawrence was slapped with two conspiracy to defraud charges and was released on $50,000 bail on each charge. Those charges came one day after she was arrested, detained, and released on $100,000 station bail.
Private criminal charges were also filed against her by Culture, Youth and Sport Minister, Charles Ramson Jr for alleged conspiracy to forge documents in the favour of her party.
Back in March, Charles Ramson Jr, who had served as the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s Counting Agent, had filed private criminal charges against Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo and Lawrence following the RO’s declaration of unverified results for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
Lawrence was arraigned in August and placed on $100,000 bail. The matter is still pending in court. The particulars of the charge stated Mingo, having been procured by Lawrence on or about March 5 at the Command Centre for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on High and Hadfield Streets, uttered to the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, the election results for Region Four, knowing them to be forged, with intent to defraud the people of Guyana.
GECOM, despite being barred by an injunction, went ahead and published the Form 24s [which are collectively the election declaration] for all regions on its website. These included the unverified declaration for Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district.
Mingo’s declaration, which was subsequently set aside by acting Chief Justice Roxane George, was signed by himself and Lawrence – the lone representative from the political parties that contested the elections. The other parties had objected to the declaration after the verification process was not fully complied with by the RO.
It was subsequently unearthed during the National Recount exercise that Mingo had heavily inflated the figures to give the then APNU/AFC incumbent a lead at the polls. However, the recount exercise showed that the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes, while the coalition secured 217,920 votes.
As such, Mingo was charged by the police and arraigned last month on four counts of misconduct in public office. He is currently on $600,000 bail. In addition, he is facing one private criminal charge jointly with Lawrence, for which he is currently out on self-bail. The Chief Elections Officer has also been charged and released on bail. (G1)