GECOM DCEO election fraud charges to continue indictably

Feb 12, 2021 News

Deputy Chief Elections Officer of GECOM, Roxanne Myers.

Kaieteur News – The electoral fraud charges against Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Roxanne Myers, will continue being heard indictably.
On October 9, 2020, Myers made her first court appearance and was slapped with two counts of misconduct in public office charges.
The matter was yesterday called in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Courts before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly for ruling on the submissions that were made by the prosecution and Myers’ attorney, Nigel Hughes.
The Magistrate upheld Hughes’ submission, for his client’s matter to be heard indictably rather than summarily which was requested by the prosecution.
The matter is being prosecuted by attorney-at-law Ganesh Hira. On a previous hearing of the matter, Hira made a submission to the court for Myers matters to be heard summarily. This means that the matter can be disposed of in the Magistrates’ Court rather than being heard indictably, where a preliminary inquiry (PI) will have to be conducted by the Magistrate.
After conducting the PI, the Magistrate will then decide based on the evidence presented to the court whether or not the matter will be sent to the High Court for trial or dismissed. However, in Hughes’ submission, he had asked for the matter to remain indictably.
After the Magistrate’s ruling, Hira informed the court that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, S.C, will be appealing the ruling and that on March 9, 2021, an update will be provided to the court.
On Myers’ first court appearance, she was placed on a total of $300,000, bail. She was not required to plead to the indictable charges in relation to her actions during the post-March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
Myers was arrested on October 6, 2020, after she turned herself in at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, Eve Leary, Georgetown.
Kaieteur News had reported that Myers’ turned herself in less than 24 hours after it was made public that she was wanted by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for questioning in relation to the investigation of fraud during the 2020 elections period.
According to the police, for more than a month, several efforts were made to contact Myers at home and even at her place of work in relation to post-March 2, 2020 elections incidents.
However, those efforts were futile, police said, as Myers made every effort to elude them. As a result, a wanted bulletin for Myers was prepared by the GPF.
Police had announced in August 2020, that they would be conducting a comprehensive investigation into the criminal conduct of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; the Returning Officer of Region Four, Clairmont Mingo, PNC Chairperson, Volda Lawrence, and others in relation to the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections and the events that followed.
The Magistrates’ for those matters are still to decide on the mode of trial that will be used, either indictably or summarily. The ruling for the mode of trial for the remaining elections fraud cases is scheduled for February 15, 2021.

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