Prosecutor Darshan Ramdhani QC has said that attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes has misconstrued his reasons for asking that Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus proceed with a summary trial for the former, Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers and Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, who are charged with misconduct in public office.
In a press release issued yesterday, Hughes said that during the court proceedings on Tuesday, Ramdhani told the magistrate that a jury in the High Court would likely be prejudiced during the consideration of the charges against the trio. “When you consider the matter, please consider this a relevant fact — that these matters are grounded in allegations of elections misconduct and the accused persons cannot be tried fairly in the High Court. No one will ever have a fair trial in the High Court in political matters. We know what the politics of Guyana is like. Guyana is a politically polarised and ethnically divided society. No jury would be impartial in political matters,” Hughes quoted the prosecutor as saying.