Voir dire held as court reviews admissibility of certain evidence – 2020 election fraud case

A key evidentiary hearing took place on Tuesday in the high-profile case arising from the 2020 General and Regional Elections, with proceedings focusing on whether certain material can be admitted at trial.
The session centred on Enrique Livan, a former information technology officer attached to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Livan is alleged to have been involved in the handling of a flash drive on March 5, 2020, at Ashmin’s Building in Georgetown, an incident prosecutors contend was linked to efforts to interfere with the tabulation process for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
The court conducted a voir dire, a legal process used to determine the admissibility of disputed evidence, and such testimony presented during this stage cannot be publicly reported.

Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty presided over the proceedings at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Tuesday.
During the hearing, the prosecution called several members of the Guyana Police Force, including Assistant Superintendent Komal Pitamber, Police Corporal Trevor Moore, and Detective Inspector James. Livan also took the witness stand as part of the evidentiary review.
The substantive trial, which resumed earlier this week after a lengthy adjournment, is being managed under structured case-management guidelines aimed at organising the presentation of evidence.
Livan is one of nine individuals facing charges in connection with the 2020 elections. Among the other accused are former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, and former Minister Volda Lawrence.

They have been charged with conspiring to falsify Region Four vote tabulations in favour of the APNU+AFC coalition, allegedly depriving the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of its electoral victory. The case remains ongoing before the Magistrates’ Court.
The March 2, 2020, Guyana General and Regional Elections were marred by one of the most protracted and disputed electoral processes in the country’s history.
Region Four, Guyana’s most populous voting district, failed to produce a publicly accepted results declaration for days after Election Day due to irregularities in the verification and tabulation process. Senior GECOM officials, including then-CEO Keith Lowenfield, Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, and Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, came under intense scrutiny for using an unofficial spreadsheet rather than official Statements of Poll (SOPs) to tally votes in that region.
The situation escalated when observers reported discrepancies between the spreadsheet numbers and the official SOPs, and when an IT officer, later identified as Enrique Livan, was seen removing a laptop and flash drive from the Commission’s command centre amid the chaos.
GECOM publicly denied any wrongdoing at the time, asserting that allegations against Livan were false and that his conduct was professional. The controversy triggered multiple legal challenges and widespread domestic and international criticism, leading to a five-month delay in the official declaration of results. The PPP eventually secured victory, and party leader Irfaan Ali was sworn in as president on August 2, 2020.
In response to the disputed election and ensuing public outcry, a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) was established. In April 2023, it concluded that senior GECOM officials had engaged in efforts to “derail and corrupt” the statutorily prescribed procedures for counting and declaring results, effectively attempting to steal the election.
The ongoing criminal trial now seeks to determine whether those actions constitute a conspiracy to defraud electors by manipulating the results, particularly in Region Four.