After two-month pause, Elections fraud trial resumes

The trial into irregularities during the March 2020 General and Regional Elections resumed on Monday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court after a break of more than two months since the last hearing in December 2025.

Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty is presiding over the trial, which is being conducted under case-management guidelines, with dates fixed in advance to streamline the trial and ensure all parties are prepared for each stage.

So far, several witnesses have presented new evidence and some have already been cross-examined.

On Monday, when the matter continued, Sasenarine Singh, a People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) agent in 2020, returned to the witness stand. He last testified in mid-November, 2025. Singh recalled when former deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers entered the tabulation room on March 4, 2020 and informed those present that former Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo had fallen ill.

“I observed medical personnel taking Mr Mingo out on a stretcher towards an ambulance,” Singh said, adding that he did not leave the room and therefore could not confirm whether Mingo was placed into the vehicle.

He said international observers, local observers, party representatives and Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) staff were all present, describing the situation as a “waiting game”. Singh also testified that Statements of Poll (SOPs) provided to him by the PPP remained in his sight at all times.

“The room was never empty it was always filled with people…international, local representatives, GECOM staff, members of political party,” he said.

According to Singh, around noon that day, Myers returned and informed those present that Mingo had been hospitalised.

He told the court that Mingo returned the following day and announced that he wanted to restart the tabulation process.

“He (Mingo) said in the interest of time, he wanted to accelerate the process and he was going to allow his staff to extract data from the SOPs in their possession and he and his staff will present a read out of this via a spreadsheet,” Singh testified.

In his sworn testimony, Singh told the court that there were strong objections to this.

“There was severe objections. A lot of voices saying no,” he said.

Singh said the process “changed a lot” and recalled seeing a heavily pregnant female GECOM officer among the staff. He added that GECOM Chairman, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh urged empathy for workers who had been working nonstop for several days and asked whether the exercise could be suspended to source additional personnel.

At this point, he said the process was paused with assurances that a shift system would be implemented to process the remaining SOPs, which he estimated was at about 879 at that time.

Singh then told the court that the following day former GECOM employee, Enrique Livan returned to recommence the tabulation process.

Nine individuals are currently before the court, charged with conspiring to manipulate the election results in favour of APNU+AFC in an attempt to deny victory to the PPP.

Those charged include former government minister Volda Lawrence, former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, and former Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers, among others.

The controversy surrounding the March 2020 elections delayed the official results for five months, until PPP candidate Irfaan Ali was sworn in as President on 2 August 2020.

The trial continue throughout this week.