Trial into elections fraud case further delayed as Hughes makes last minute request for additional documents
After a three-year delay, everything was in place for the trial in the elections fraud case to go ahead as planned on Monday in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Four witnesses including Minister of Local Government Sonia Parag, Head of the Diaspora Unit Rosalinda Rasul, former Region Four Police Commander Edgar Thomas and Forensic Investigator Rawle Nedd were all present at Court for the trial to commence.
But despite great optimism and readiness, a request from defence attorney Nigel Hughes prevented a start of the trial.
The trial was expected to commence before Magistrate Leron Daly with Special Prosecutor Darshan Ramdhani, KC, leading the state’s evidence in the case.
But despite the state already handing over certified copies of Statements of Poll (SoPs) and Statements of Recount (SoRs), along with video interviews and several other documents, Hughes wants more.
On Monday, he requested copies of the minutes of meetings held by the Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) during the period under examination and documentation of all decisions taken.
Hughes argued that this would help him advance his clients’s claim that they conducted themselves professionally and executed decisions taken at the level of the Commission.
In the long-awaiting trial, Hughes is representing former District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo; Former Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers and former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield.
Additionally, other GECOM staff facing charges are Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Bobb-Cummings and Michelle Miller, for allegedly defrauding the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes for the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Two politicians, former People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Chairperson Volda Lawrence and PNC/R activist Carol Smith-Joseph are also charged.
But Hughes’ requests for disclosure deal directly with the use of spreadsheets to tally the results of the elections in defence of those employed by GECOM.
Ramdhani pointed out that these disclosures were made over two years ago and no requests were made for minutes and decisions of the Commission.
But even so, he argued that Section 142 of the Representation of the People’s Act prohibits the disclosure of the documents.
Hughes in turn said this was in contradiction to Article 144 of the Constitution, which supersedes ROPA and affords his clients a fair trial.
Ramdhani insisted that he did not have the documents and that he had no authority to disclose them and such a directive would have to be done from the Court to GECOM directly.
He described Hughes’ application as a tactic to delay the commencement of the trial and said it was nothing short of unmeritorious.
After lengthy exchanges and a suggestion that the High Court should be approached to decide whether the documents can be disclosed in the Magistrates’ Court, Magistrate Daly adjourned the matter to Wednesday, March 06, 2024.
She will use the next two days to consider the submissions and make a decision but noted that she fears approaching the High court would further delay the commencement of the trial.
It is alleged that the defendants inflated or facilitated the inflation of results for Region Four, the country’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC coalition a majority win at the polls when, in fact, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won by 15,000 votes.
A lengthy recount of the votes eventually declared victory in favour of the PPP/C, and Dr. Irfaan Ali was sworn in as the President of Guyana.
