Dissatisfied with progress, gov’t to write DPP for status update on electoral fraud cases – AG

Unhappy with the speed at which several electoral fraud cases are progressing, the government intends to write the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a status update on the cases involving several high-ranking members of the former APNU+AFC Coalition government and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

So says Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, in response to public queries about the delay in determining these cases which stemmed from charges filed roughly two years ago.

“Members of the public must understand that charges are instituted by [the] Police upon advice from the DPP and [the] Police legal advisor and prosecuted by those two agencies. The government is insulated from that process,” Nandlall said during his Tuesday night ‘Issues in the News’ commentary aired live on his Facebook page.

Notwithstanding, he said the government will not sit idly by and allow the charges to “just fall away.”

“We are equally and as an important stakeholder interested in the outcome of these charges.

“So, the government will request from the DPP soon a status update on these charges,” the AG said.

He said the government wants to know exactly why these cases have not progressed with the alacrity and seriousness with which he believes they should.

Nandlall promised too that when that report is received, it will be shared with the public.

“You are entitled to that information and it will come from the DPP because the DPP is responsible for the prosecution of these offences. When we receive that information, we will make it public,” the Attorney General promised.

Currently before the courts on electoral fraud related charges stemming from the 2020 elections are former Minister of Health Volda Lawrence, APNU+AFC member Carol Smith-Joseph, former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, his former Deputy Roxanne Myers and former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo and others.

The trial against a total of seven persons accused of colluding to rig the March 02, 2020 elections was set to commence in August 2021 but was initially deferred.

In January 2023, the four employees of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), along with the two senior PNC/R denied their involvement in conspiring to defraud electors.

The four other Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) staffers who allegedly conspired include Registration Clerks, Shefern February; Michelle Miller; Denise Babb – Cummings and Information Technology Officer, Enrique Livan.

They are all accused of inflating the results of Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district – to give the APNU+AFC Coalition a majority win at the polls when in fact, the PPP/C had won by 15,000 votes.