The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has arrested Duarte Hetsberger, the Personal Assistant to the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield.
According to usually reliable sources, Hetsberger, 39, was detained just after lunch as part of the ongoing investigation into alleged electoral fraud during the March 2 polls.
Later, a search of his residence was conducted in his presence and several electronic devices belonging to family members were seized. It is not clear if Hetsberger has legal representation.
Up to press time he had not been charged but remained in police custody.
Hetsberger, who is a member of the Guyana Defence Force has been seconded to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for several years. He served as Returning Officer for Georgetown during the 2016 and 2018 Local Government Elections.
He is the sixth person to be detained by the GPF as part of its probe into the events surrounding the March 5 declaration of results by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.
Mingo himself who was detained last week was released on 600,000 bail on Monday after being charged with four counts of misconduct in public office.
Sheffern February, a clerk employed with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was also granted bail in the sum of $300,000.
February was charged with two counts of attempting to defraud the people of Guyana.
Those charges stated that while in the position of a clerk she read incorrect numbers from the statements of poll during the March 2020 election. The charges are identical but pertain to the regional and general elections. February was also not required to plead. She is expected to make her next appearance on September 25th, 2020.
Enrique Livan, an Information Technology officer attached to GECOM, was also brought before the court on a charge of manipulating the numbers of the statements of poll that were recorded in the system so that they reflected fraudulent numbers for District Four. He was granted bail in the sum of $150,000 on the single charge.
