The long-awaited trial in the 2020 elections fraud case, for which nine persons are charged inclusive of then Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield and former APNU+AFC minister Volda Lawrence, is set to commence on March 4th.
The matter came up last Monday before Magistrate Leron Daly and apart from the defendants and their lawyers receiving several bulky files of evidential material the magistrate also informed that she will set aside one week a month starting from March and ending in May to move the trial along. The trial will continue daily during those weeks starting from 9 am and concluding at 3 pm with Fridays seeing sessions going for just half a day.
Those charged apart from Lowenfield and Lawrence, are; former Deputy Chief Election Officer, Roxanne Myers; former District Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo; APNU+AFC activist, Carol Smith-Joseph; former GECOM Registration Clerks, Shefern February, Michelle Miller, and Denise Babb–Cummings along with Information Technology Officer, Enrique Livan. They are all charged with conspiring to defraud voters of the March 2020 general and regional elections. The charges, which were initially read to the defendants in June of 2021, states that between March 2nd of 2020 and August 2nd, 2020, the nine defendants conspired with each other to defraud the electors of Guyana by declaring a false accounts of votes cast for the general election which was held on March 2nd, 2020.
At a previous hearing, Magistrate Daly had requested that the prosecution sort the 24 case files brought before she proceeded with the matter, following which, Daly adjourned the matter to January 15 2024. During the proceedings on Monday, the defendants along with their defence attorneys, Nigel Hughes and Darren Wade, appeared for the signing and collecting of statements.
During the session Hughes expressed concerns he had about the administration. He said this concern arises “when the executive express comments, make statements that are first of all inaccurate, but secondly, by their tenet, [they] are intended to intimidate the court, or perhaps, may be perceived as an attempt to intimidate the court or select another court they feel comfortable with.”
Attorney General Anil Nandlall recently expressed concerns about the length of time the trial of was taking to commence.
Wade also added that he had seen comments online being made by the prosecution concerning the elections case and said that “the attack on the court is uncalled for”. Responding, Prosecutor Darshan Ramdhani said that the prosecution has every faith in the court that is hearing the matter. As it relates to the comments being made in the public domain he said these were as a result of the [defence] lawyers placing information in the public domain.
Hughes then requested time to check the case files with his clients which he said was not an adjournment but rather a chance to review the files. The matter was then adjourned to March 4th for the commencement of the trial.
