Former Deputy Returning Officer (DRO), Paul Jaisingh, yesterday told the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into events around the March 2020 general elections that he was assaulted by a party agent and had received a death threat from a Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) staff member at the Ashmins building on March 4th.
He said that these events occurred when he arrived at the building – which housed the District Four office- and after assisting the Information Technology (IT) Officer, Enrique Livan, with inserting figures into a spreadsheet.
Jaisingh, who identified himself as one of the DROs during the March 2nd 2020 elections, and at that time was responsible for uplifting all Statements of Poll (SOPs) from his assigned polling stations on the lower East Coast of Demerara and transporting them to the Returning Officer’s (RO) office, said that when he was called back to assist with the SOPs on March 4 at the Ashmins building, he was “harshly chucked” by APNU+AFC member, James Bond. He added that the words “Yuh gun dead tonight,” were later whispered in his ear by one of the GECOM female staffers.
The witness told the CoI that late in the afternoon on March 4, 2020, he received a telephone call from an unidentified person, informing him to report to the GECOM Command Centre, which is the Ashmins building, to assist with the verification process since the two female staff members that were there were complaining that they were tired and hungry.
Jaisingh yesterday recalled that upon his arrival in the building, “I was assaulted by Mr Bond… James Bond, a party agent I think for APNU… he chucked me on my shirt and then he grabbed the badge and then he say, ‘Oh, you’re a DRO.’”
He added that after Bond let go of him, he saw a gathering in the tabulation room where they were talking about continuing the tabulation and verification process.
After being spotted by the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, Jaisingh said they took him into a room on the ground floor of the building where a meeting was being held in which they asked him if he would like to call the figures or insert them into the spreadsheet to which he replied, “any one” (of the two).
The former DRO related that although Livan was not given the opportunity to choose what it was he would have liked to do, he (Livan) was handed the task of calling out the numbers and in Jaisingh’s opinion, such permission was handed down from Lowenfield.
“We went back to the tabulation room and Mr Livan and another staff start setting up the projector and so on to start the verification process… Mr Livan was calling the figures… from the GECOM Statements of Poll. As he called I would enter it on the computer in the spreadsheet and it will be projected to a screen. At first it was going well, he called and it was accurate, then some of the numbers were inaccurate and persons in the room were protesting that the figures were inaccurate, then he will correct himself and I would have to change the figure to the correct figure,” explained Jaisingh.
As the verification process came to an abrupt end due to Livan complaining within less than 15 minutes that he was tired and taking the computer and flash drive into an enclosed room where the door was partially opened, Jaisingh said it was then he was hit with the death threat.
He stated that after the alarm was raised that the IT officer was in the room with the two devices, and seeing the commotion that erupted, he then ran into the room to see for himself. However, in his written testimony to the CoI, Jaisingh had initially told them, “Mr Livan was sitting… like putting his head on the desk, resting his head on the desk. There were two other GECOM employee… two female GECOM employee.”
At that point yesterday, the witness did not mention anything about seeing the computer next to Livan or seeing that Livan was typing on the computer. Several times he was questioned by Justice (retired) Carl Singh, as to what it was that he really saw and it was then that he mentioned that the computer was next to Livan, but still did not say if he saw Livan on the computer.
Escorted
After the confrontation with Livan and others, Jaisingh said that the IT officer was then escorted out of the room and into the tabulation area by the police and Lowenfield, where talks again were in progress to decide upon if to continue with the verification process. He said that while sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, a female came and sat next to him and whispered in his ears. Replying to Justice Singh as to how he felt at hearing those words, the witness said that he was shocked. “A female came and sit next to me and she issue some death threats ‘yuh go dead tonight’. I know she had on a white T-shirt. I was shocked but I wasn’t intimidated.”
He added that he never saw the woman before and he was not aware who she was but suggested that she was one of the GECOM staff since she was wearing the white t-shirt which all workers of the commission were wearing.
In one of the videos which captured the moment after Livan was brought back into the tabulation room, and which was presented yesterday to the inquiry as evidence, a number of persons were seen adamantly requesting that the verification process be continued by the DRO, who was Jaisingh, however, Lowenfield was seen opposing that request.
Additionally, when asked by Justice Singh if it was the same computer they were going to use that he and Livan had previously used to call the figures and insert into the spreadsheet, Jaisingh said, “Well, I wouldn’t be able to say if is the same laptop because I didn’t memorize how the laptop look. I can’t recall if it was the same laptop he took back.”
The man said that before Livan took the computer and flash drive away, they were at the time calling out the figures for the East Bank district and that after the commotion with the IT officer in the room, they had returned to calling out the numbers but to his recollection, he could not say if the figures were still the same or if they had changed.
“I know it was East Bank but I don’t know if it was the same data. I can’t recall if is the same spreadsheet because remember he is giving me figures, I won’t remember the figures out my head.”
