Roxanne Myers slapped with misconduct in public office charges

Attempts to rig elections

– to appear in court today

Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers has been slapped with two counts of misconduct in public office in relation to the role she played in the blatant attempts to rig the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Myers was arrested on Tuesday after she surrendered to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, moments before the Police Force issued a wanted bulletin for her arrest.

The Police had said ranks have been trying for over a month to question the DCEO in relation to its ongoing probe of electoral fraud following the March 2 polls.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told Guyana Times on Thursday evening that Myers was charged and was expected to appear at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts today.
He had stated that the DCEO was arrested for the offence of “conspiracy to defraud” and when she was told of the allegation, she exercised her right to remain silent.
But Attorney Ronald Daniels, one of the lawyers representing Myers, refuted the account provided by the Police Force, contending that his client was arrested for “perverting the course of justice” – something which the Police had denied.
In August, the Police said they were launching a probe after “formal reports” were received alleging “criminal conduct” by Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield and embattled Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, as well as others, in relation to the elections and the events that followed thereafter.
Only two weeks ago, Lowenfield was arrested and the allegations of electoral fraud were put to him, but he too exercised his right to remain silent. He was eventually released on $100,000 bail and had to report to the CID HQ.
The CEO is being accused of attempting to undermine the will of the people by repeatedly refusing to submit the verified results from the national recount to Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice Claudette Singh, for a final declaration.
The national recount exercise showed that the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes. But Lowenfield had repeatedly refused to submit his final elections report with those figures despite being so directed by the GECOM Chair on several occasions. He eventually complied, paving the way for the declaration and subsequent swearing-in of the new government on August 2, 2020 – five months after elections were held.
However, even as the Police probe is ongoing, Lowenfield is already facing three private criminal charges for conspiracy to commit fraud and breach of trust in public office that were filed by private citizens Desmond Morian and Josh Kanhai, who is a member of The New Movement (TNM) party. The CEO was arraigned back in July and placed on $450,000 bail.
Meanwhile, the Police have also arrested and charged several other GECOM staffers, including Mingo.
During the recount exercise, it was unearthed that Mingo heavily inflated the figures in Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting District – in favour of the caretaker A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) regime.
He was charged and arraigned last month on four counts of misconduct in public office and was placed on $600,000 bail.
Mingo is also facing private criminal charges filed by People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s election agent, Charles Ramson Jr., back in March for forging official electoral documents in an effort to defraud the country. He was charged along with Volda Lawrence, who is Chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) – the leading party of the APNU faction of the coalition.