Introduction
Following hours of chaos on March 13th, District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo bawled out a second fraudulent declaration for Demerara-Mahaica even though earlier that day Chief Justice Roxane George had issued specific instructions on the use of Statements of Poll (SoPs) which he failed to comply with.
By the time he uttered his declaration around 11 pm in the hearing of APNU+AFC supporters, agents for political parties had already walked out in disgust from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Headquarters in Kingston.
Mingo’s second fraudulent declaration compounded the electoral crisis that had blown up around his first maligned declaration on March 5th at the Ashmins building amid loud roars of “no!” With the controversy gathering steam on March 14 and contempt of court proceedings being filed against Mingo over his second declaration, CARICOM Chair, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley intervened that day with an agreement between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for a recount of the votes of all 10 districts. What had been seen then as a solution to the impasse has now been ensnared in even greater defiance in what is now widely seen as a sustained plot to rig the general elections in favour of APNU+AFC. A three-person CARICOM observer team delivered a report on June 15 declaring that the recount results provide a perfect basis for the declaration of a winner. Those results show a win for the opposition PPP.
President Granger has however maintained silence on the June 15 report though APNU+AFC officials have attacked it and claimed that thousands of irregularities were discovered during the recount. In the meanwhile following an approach by a supporter of APNU+AFC to the Guyana Court of Appeal to prevent the declaration of the recount result, that court on June 22nd issued an order seeking to insert the word `valid’ into provisions governing how the Chief Election Officer (CEO) decides the winner of the Presidency. This has seen Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield inexplicably junking 25% of the votes and presenting a result in favour of APNU+AFC. Noting the results of the CARICOM report on the recount, Mottley has questioned on what basis Lowenfield disenfranchised one person let alone over 115,000. The opposition PPP has since approached the Caribbean Court of Justice to have the Court of Appeal order overturned. This case will be heard on Wednesday.
However, this latest court action plays out the final decision will be left to GECOM and particularly its Chair, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh
With Chief Justice Roxane George ruling on March 11th that the March 5th declaration of results for District Four by Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo, following the March 2nd general and regional elections was null and void, Mingo was bound by the court to return to the verification process to allow observers and party agents to witness the tabulation of votes.
This process, which is still regarded as highly controversial and fraudulent, resulted in a second declaration on the night of March 13th.
Mingo’s second declaration, which was done at approximately 10:50pm on March 13th, showed for a second time that the APNU+AFC coalition won the region with 136,057 votes, compared to 77,231 for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), a margin of 58,826. This margin of votes had indicated the APNU+AFC coalition had won the elections. But figures from the National Recount show a stark contrast in the figures and indicated that the two declarations made by Mingo were altered to reflect an APNU+AFC win.
The recount for District Four found the votes for APNU+AFC to be 116,941 and 80,920 for the PPP/C.
The March 13th declaration was not spared from objections as party agents and local and international observers throughout the tabulation process that was concluded at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Secretariat, Kingston, raised concerns that they were unable to clearly see and scrutinise the Statements of Polls (SoPs) being projected.
Following Mingo’s declaration on the night of March 13th, cheers erupted from behind the police barriers that were erected around GECOM’s Secretariat as APNU+AFC party representatives walked out of the compound announcing, “It is finished… we did it… David Granger is our President.” It was a jubilant night for those supporters.
This declaration led the other contesting parties to request a recount of the votes the following day but all of the requests were declined by the RO.
The declaration for Region Four is said to have been the most contentious in the electoral process despite minor incidents that occurred at polling stations on elections day. Both international and local observers, along with party agents and GECOM, had concluded that the activities of the day were smoothly conducted.
The controversial Region Four declaration of March 5th was the last to be announced and even before the announcements, the tabulation and verification process was heavily criticised by stakeholders.
The ruling of Chief Justice George-Wiltshire on March 11th had paved the way for the tabulation process to resume on March 12th.
In the recount of events provided by A New and United Guyana (ANUG) election agent and party representative Jonathan Yearwood, he told Stabroek News that representatives of all parties and observer missions were present at the Ashmins Building located at High and Hadfield streets on the morning of March 12th, ready to complete the tabulation exercise.
Yearwood said he arrived at 10:27am and waited with other party representatives for the process to begin.
At 10:42am, he related that Mingo approached the group of persons and started to check the names as submitted to GECOM. The register of names started with the local observers and then the international observers. As Mingo moved to address party representatives, Yearwood said, they were informed that none of them was accredited by GECOM and as a result only persons who Mingo deemed necessary to observe the verification process would be admitted. Mingo justified his decision citing Section 86 of the Representation of the People Act.
SoPs
As Mingo proceeded with the day’s activities, at 11:04am, Yearwood recalled, the official informed them that he had taken the liberty to add the SoPs in their absence – the same irregularity that had featured in the lead-up to the first declaration. Mingo further informed agents that the process being undertaken was a verification and not a tabulation process.
As Mingo made the disclosure, opposition-appointed GECOM commissioner Sase Gunraj interrupted and asked whether the verification to be done of the SoPs was in accordance with the CJs ruling. This question triggered an argument resulting in a back and forth between the two and Mingo left the tabulation room to get the SoPs.
Mingo however returned empty-handed and informed those present that he would continue to read from the prepared spreadsheet.
“This is the same spreadsheet the Chief Justice had rejected during her ruling the day before. Arguments are pursued and everyone, including ANUG’s representative objected to the use of the spreadsheet,” Yearwood recalled. This objection by the stakeholders left Mingo flustered and unclear about how he wanted to deal with the protest against the use of the spreadsheet.
Just around 12:10 pm, Yearwood said, GECOM Chairman, retired Justice Claudette Singh, arrived at the tabulation centre and concerns over Mingo’s use of the spreadsheet were made known by party representatives.
After listening to the complaints, Singh informed the group that she would like to read and interpret the judgment made by the Chief Justice before making a pronouncement on the matter at hand.
On that note, Yearwood explained, Kit Nascimento, who was a local observer, requested the suspension of the verification process until the written judgment had been acquired, to which all of the party representatives agreed.
Following the conclusion of that meeting, at 12.12pm, Yearwood said, the Heads of Missions from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada departed with many of the observers following.
The party representatives remained along with some of the local and international observers.
At 3:59pm, Mingo entered the room and informed the party representatives that there had been no word on the written judgment and that he would call them when the chairman received it.
Yearwood went on to explain that he, along with other party members, returned to the Ashmins building on the morning of March 13th.
At around 8:50am, Yearwood said, he entered the building and observed that the tabulation room had been moved from the front of the building to the back.
“A big screen monitor has been set up along with a head table and rows of chairs for the Party Reps and Observers. At just 9.10 am Mr Mingo says this is not a verification exercise but a tabulation of the SoPs. He also said that any person causing disruptions will be ejected from the building, and disputes will be dealt with after the tabulation,” Yearwood recalled.
No cell phones
According to the ANUG party member, Mingo instructed that no cell phones or other electronic devices would be allowed during the tabulation exercise. He later backpedalled on his decision following strong objections from party members and observers who were using laptops and their cellular phones to keep track of the count. Mingo, however instructed that no information from the process should be released outside of the room.
“He declared that he would be restarting from where the count had been stopped and that he would be using a spreadsheet. He explained that two SoP’s were unavailable as they were locked in the ballot boxes. The Ballot boxes numbers were 4517 and 4550. He said he used his SoPs to create the spreadsheet. He then changed his mind after the APNU+AFC Rep objected to starting from 4001, she demanded the count restart at 4041 and he conceded to this over the objections of everyone else in the room,” Yearwood elaborated on the events at the start of the day.
Yearwood said between 9:35am and 9:45am, the process was restarted from Ballot Box 4041 and as it continued, they observed and recorded the first 15 SoPs having differences. He said, “The APNU+AFC had some 50-100 votes added to their total while the PPP has 20-30 votes subtracted from their total. This was per SoP.”
In the process, Yearwood said, Carol Smith Joseph, who was the APNU+AFC representative in the centre, “threatened to stomp on the face of Ms Pauline Chase, the Bar Association observer. She also threatened to physically harm Mr Kit Nascimento, the Private sector Commission observer.”
With the inconsistency of the numbers on the SoPs continuing to be revealed during the process, the heads of the diplomatic missions here walked out of the building after being told rude and disparaging things by the APNU+AFC representative, Yearwood related.
“She also told them to get out of Guyana and threatened to physically harm them. No police nor GECOM personnel intervened to stop the APNU+AFC representative,” he alleged.
The clerk continued reading from a spreadsheet which was hidden by the SoPs she was holding, and at around 10:19 am, a court marshal entered the room and served Mingo with a document, he said.
Upon receiving the document, Mingo handed over his duties to Denise Bobb Cummings and left the room, Yearwood recalled.
Despite being frustrated at the process, party representatives from the People’s Republican Party, The Citizenship Initiative, ANUG and APNU+AFC, along with eight observers remained in the room as the representatives of the other parties walked out in protest, said Yearwood.
He also alleged that APNU+AFC supporters started to throw plastic drink bottles at him while he was speaking with the media because they didn’t like what he was saying.
Just around 12:45pm, the ANUG representative related, he returned to the tabulation centre after he was informed that mediation efforts were afoot. As they continued the tabulation, the votes from the ballot boxes and the numbers were called from the SoPs instead of the spreadsheet but they were still discovering differences.
Suspended
Mingo, after returning to the building, suspended the process and said when the process resumed the SoPs would be projected on a screen. However, agents were informed that the projection would be done at the GECOM compound at 4pm.
Yeawood recalled to this newspaper that he arrived at GECOM at around 3:37pm, but the process recommenced at 4:48pm.
“Mr Mingo enters the area where the process will be done. He explained that the SoPs will be scanned on to a screen, then passed back to the GECOM staff who will then read the figures for the tabulation,” the party representative said, while explaining that Mingo did not take any questions despite objections that they were unable to see the SoPs projected.
He added that when a European Union observer went to the scanner and tried to have a closer look at the process, he was advised to return to his seat and police officers entered the area to prevent any persons from interfering with the process.
Yearwood related further that he left the tabulation centre in protest that their concerns were not being addressed. He noted that party representatives could not have seen what was projected onto the screen.
At 4:50 pm, as he was leaving, the ANUG representative said, Joseph rushed up at him and he was arrested and taken to the guard area at the entrance of the compound. He was later escorted by police to the Brickdam Police Station.
In a video of the incident at the GECOM headquarters seen by Stabroek News, Yearwood was seen shouting at Mingo and he then got up and as he was walking out, he pointed his hand at the GECOM officials present and Joseph shouted to him not to point his hands at them and he shouted, “You shut up!” to her. As Joseph advanced to him, Yearwood said, “You want hit me? I would shove you.” As the two squared off, Yearwood shoved Joseph, causing her to stumble backwards. Joseph rushed back to him as police rushed to intervene and prevented any further physical altercation.
Yearwood, after being escorted out of the compound, was unable to relate the events that led up the second declaration.
Restrained
Presidential Candidate of TCI, Rhonda Ann Lam told Stabroek News that prior to Yearwood being escorted out of the compound by police, he had gotten agitated at the fake SoP numbers and voiced his concerns very loudly. As such, he was advised to tone it down or leave but he kept protesting and the police were called to remove him. As he was leaving, Joseph, who was on the other end, got up and rushed in his face, she said. He shoved her and the police managed to get in between them both and restrained them both, according to Lam.
Lam related that after the commotion between Joseph and Yearwood, the tabulation continued but with their objections not being heard, the representative of the United Republican Party withdrew from the process.
Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party Lenox Shuman also left the tabulation centre, Lam said, while the others remained for the tabulation of regional votes.
After a 10-minute break, she recalled, they returned to tabulating the votes and the process involved tabulating the SoPs, scanning them, projecting them on screen and then calling out the numbers. Apart from the circuit breaker tripping causing both the laptop and projector to shut down, the tabulation process continued throughout the night until the RO made a declaration.
“The RO declares results just after thanking God for bringing us here after all the ups and downs. The only party representative to sign off on results is the incumbent representative,” Lam recalled while stating that a large number of police had surrounded the RO and whisked him out of GECOM.
As she reflected on the events of March 12th, Lam said the drama of the day begun from behind police barriers from one side as they were told they needed new accreditation from GECOM while from another side, ranks informed that they did not have any instructions to allow them in.
At 10:30am, she said, they were informed by Mingo during a briefing that only one representative from each party and an observer body would be allowed to sit in and observe the process.
Lam related that during the course of the activity, Mingo was prepared to read from the spreadsheet instead of the SoPs, thereby defying the orders of the high court. Like Yearwood, she too said that he had gone to source the SoPs and for an interpretation of the Chief Justice’s ruling.
At around 12:20, the process was suspended as the chairman too was waiting for the written ruling but after waiting for hours, the process concluded and they were informed that it would recommence the following morning.
On March 13th, the process recommenced, Lam said, and it was announced that it would start from the beginning. However, there was a strong objection from Joseph and Mingo decided to favour her objections and picked up from where they had left off.
As the process continued, Lam recalled, in the first SoP they found discrepancies resulting in verbal tussling as other party representatives aired their concerns.
Lam shared a similar recount to Yearwood’s as she explained that the heads of the diplomatic community walked out and other party representatives denounced the process.
“Mr Nigel Hinds of Change Guyana called [the process] a farce… and Kit Nascimento said the RO Mingo is a disgrace [garnering a response from] the incumbent representative…,” Lam said as she recounted the verbal slings that were traded between the stakeholders.
Throughout the process, Lam related that only the SoPs from the incumbent would have matched what was being presented to them from the spreadsheet and there were no objections from Joseph.
Served
In the process, Lam recalled Mingo being served with a notice of application and he was summoned by the court. The tabulation was not paused as he handed over his duties to his clerk who continued the tabulation.
“There has been no SoP that TCI has independently verified from the field that has matched so far. I have the accompanying image from the field… After 11 boxes corresponding exactly with what I have, the numbers are off again for the Lower East Coast,” Lam posted on her Facebook page during an update provided to her followers on March 13th.
According to Lam, Chase asked if the staff had received word that the observers can look at the SoPs but Joseph responded that “she will stamp her” if she tries to verify the SoPs.
Following the legal hearings in the court, the process was suspended, Lam said, and they were informed by Mingo that it would continue at 4pm.
“Since the SoPs don’t match with what various parties have, a request was made for this to be done from the start. The request was denied and they will start with the display from the SoP we just finished at,” Lam related.
Just around 4:42pm, she said, the SoPs were being scanned and read but as the inconsistencies continued and party representatives questioned the authenticity of the SoPs, the RO refused to answer their questions.
By this time, opposition-appointed commissioners Gunraj and Robeson Benn urged the RO to do everything possible to deliver credible results. From Gunraj’s inspection, he assumed the SoPs were photocopies and would not carry the security features, she said.
This did not prevent Mingo from completing the process and making a declaration late that night.
Lam said the declaration favoured the incumbent and saw APNU+AFC gaining 136,057 votes against PPP/C with 77,231, ANUG with 1,387, Change Guyana with 919, LJP with 761, TCI with 463, TNM with 128 and URP with 90, and PRP with 389. Mingo’s declaration gave APNU+AFC a win by 58,826 votes.
PPP/C executive, attorney Anil Nandlall recounted to Stabroek News that he had to make a decision to return to court on March 13th after Mingo failed to adhere to the Chief Justice’s ruling on March 11th.
Nandlall said after they were receiving reports that the spreadsheet was being used instead of the SoPs as the court suggested, they decided to return to court for clarity.
“I had to ask the RO, Mr Mingo you came from the courts and you heard what the Chief Justice said and you are still using the spreadsheet…I went back after the court proceeding to the tabulation centre but the process was never halted it continued while we were in court. The clerks were doing the work,” Nandlall said.
Justice George-Wiltshire was forced to reduce her explanation to attorneys on both sides to elementary-level reasoning. She said that what she meant was that duly authorised persons looking on at the process had to see each statement, whether it was held up in the air or projected on a screen.
Holding up her electronic tablet to illustrate what she meant, the judge then very slowly pointed out that whatever number of votes were ascribed to each SoP, it must not only be called out, but shown and recorded before moving on to the next, Stabroek News had reported.
Halt
Nandlall explained that after the clarification was received, it was then that Mingo decided to halt the process and move it to GECOM headquarters in Kingston.
He added that he had visited GECOM headquarters and was there for some time and throughout the process, Mingo ignored objections as he completed the tabulation of the remaining SoPs.
He noted that he had returned home to prepare court documents for a hearing that was set in the Diamond/Grove Magistrate’s Court for March 14th.
An application for a recount of the Region Four votes and to challenge Mingo’s second declaration of the Region Four results was made in the court but the application was withdrawn following an agreement between the Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo and President David Granger for a recount. This statement was issued by CARICOM following a visit by Chairman of CARICOM Mia Mottley and the Prime Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago Keith Rowley, Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica and Keith Mitchell of Grenada.
During the second part of the tabulation of the votes, the Organization of American States (OAS) Election Observation Mission withdrew from the country saying that the tabulation process for Region Four was not transparent and it warned that the legitimacy of any government installed in these circumstances would be open to question.
On the heels of the OAS withdrawal, electoral observer missions from the Commonwealth, the European Union and the Carter Center also expressed grave concern about the process being used to determine the March 2 election results for Region Four.
In a joint statement, they also charged that the Region Four count was not complying with the decision by Chief Justice George-Wiltshire.
The statement, issued hours before the controversial declaration of the results, saw the missions voicing their concern about the “continued lack of transparency” in the ascertainment of results for Region Four.
They argued that orders issued with the judgment should be complied with, and the tabulation process conducted and concluded accordingly. “Unless and until this is done in Region 4, the election results cannot be considered credible,” they added.
Timeline for Clairmont Mingo’s second declaration for District Four
March 12, 2020
10.42 AM – Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo meets with party representatives and members of observer bodies. Party representatives were told that they were not accredited by the Guyana Elections Commission, and in accordance with the Representation of the People Act, Section 86, as RO he could deem who was necessary to observe the process.
11.04 AM- The tabulation commences and the RO informs that he will be reading from a spreadsheet. This sparks a protest as persons question whether the process is in conformity with the ruling of the Chief Justice on March 11th.
11.37 AM- Mingo after seeking clarity said he will continue to read from the SoPs. Parties object again.
12.10 PM- Party representatives complain to Chairman of GECOM, Claudette Singh, who after listening to the complaints said she was promised the written judgment and would like to see and understand the judgment before making a decision.
12.17 PM- Verification process suspended by Singh until she receive the written judgment. Heads of the diplomatic missions from United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union and observer bodies begin to leave.
3.59 PM- Remaining stakeholders were informed by the RO that the Chair was still awaiting the written judgment and as such they would resume the tabulation exercise at a time to be fixed.
March 13, 2020
8.30-9.00 AM- Stakeholders begin arriving at the Ashmins building at High and Hadfield streets for the continuation of the tabulation and verification process.
9.10 AM- Returning Officer Mingo informs stakeholders that he will only be allowing one representative for each party and one observer per observer mission. He also informed that no information from the tabulation centre must be released.
9.30 AM-The tabulation process commences.
9.45 AM- Party representatives and observers are verbally abused by APNU+AFC representative Carol Smith Joseph following objections to inconsistencies with Statements of Poll.
10.10 AM- Heads of the Diplomatic Missions here from United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union walk out of the process as the inconsistencies continue.
10.19 AM- Mingo was summoned to the court of the Chief Justice.
10.23 AM- He hands over his duties to a clerk and leaves for the court hearing.
10.46 AM- Some party representatives walk out of the process citing irregularities. The process continued nevertheless.
12.45 PM – Party representatives returned to the tabulation centre for mediation on the way forward.
1.18 PM – The RO returns and suspends the process and informs those present that it will restart at 4:00 pm at GECOM’s secretariat in Kingston.
4.26 PM –Mingo arrives at the area identified for the projection of the SoPs and explains the process of tabulation.
4.35 PM- Questions and concerns are raised by stakeholders but no answer is provided by the RO. An observer tried to view the SoPs being scanned but was told to step away.
4.48 PM- The process starts but nothing is visible on the screen.
5.00 PM- Yearwood and Joseph in a physical confrontation. They were parted by police.
6.00 PM-Yearwood escorted to the Brickdam Police Station. Objections continue to be raised.
6.00 PM-8.30 PM – Representatives of the United Republican Party and Liberty and Justice Party leave the process.
11.00PM – Mingo makes the declaration and swiftly leaves the compound under police protection.
