Video recordings from Ashmins building cannot be found – Persaud tells election COI

Although the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had installed cameras in the Ashmins Building for the March 02, 2020 elections, neither the cameras nor the recordings can be found.

The Ashmins building, which is situated on the corners of Hadfield and High Streets in Georgetown, was the main administrative center for the overall elections and also housed District Four operations and and the office of the District’s Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, who is currently before the court on electoral fraud-related charges.

When public hearings of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry opened on Friday, Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud was the first to take the stand.
He made the revelation of the missing cameras and footage.

Persaud said his predecessor, former CEO Keith Lowenfield, had given instructions for the cameras to be installed. Lowenfield is also charged jointly and separately on electoral fraud-related charges and was dismissed by GECOM.

“No one knows when the cameras were removed or where the footage might be,” Persaud said.

He also told the Commission, headed by Justice of the Appeal (retired) of Turks and Caicos Stanley John, that when he assumed office as CEO in December 2021, the computers at the Secretariat which should have had information in this regard were also wiped.

Lowenfield remained on the job with full control of the Secretariat until August 2021.

The disgraced CEO, his deputy Roxanne Myers and Mingo all had their contracts terminated at the same time.

Lowenfield is currently before the court on three counts of Misconduct in Public Office charges and three counts of Forgery; while Myers is charged with two counts of Misconduct in Public Office.

Mingo is currently charged with four counts of Misconduct in Public Office, while People’s National Congress Chairperson, Volda Lawrence and Opposition activist, Carol Joseph are also before the court on electoral fraud charges.

The trio were again charged with two new charges to defraud electors in June 2021 and released on $100,000 bail.

They are accused of inflating the results of Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district – to give the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition a majority win at the March 2, 2020, polls when in fact, the PPP/C had won by 15,000 more votes.