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Mingo and others return to court on July 15
Kaieteur News – On July 15, 2022, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) court case in which several persons were charged criminally for allegedly trying to rig the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, will continue in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Michelle Miller.
Enrique Livan.
Those charged include: Chairperson of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Volda Lawrence, former Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.
The others are A Partnership for National Unity, Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) activist, Carol Smith-Joseph, GECOM’s Information Technology Officer, Enrique Livan and GECOM Clerks, Michelle Miller, Sheffern February and Denise Bab-Cummings.
The State’s team in the matter is being led by Attorney-at-Law Darshan Ramdhani, QC and includes Glenn Hanoman, Mark Conway, Ganesh Hira, Arudranauth Gossai, and George Thomas.
Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes is representing Mingo, Lawrence and Smith-Joseph, while Attorneys-at-Law Eusi Anderson, Ronald Daniels and Konyo Sandiford are representing Livan, Miller, February and Bab-Cummings.
Sheffern February.
Denise Bab-Cummings.
Some of the charges the defendants face relate to misconduct in public office, conspiracy to commit fraud, forging a document and forgery.
Some of the defendants were slapped with a number of joint and individual charges. Some of those charges are, misconduct in public office, conspiracy to commit fraud, forging a document and forgery.
Mingo and Lawrence are facing a joint charge, which alleges that on March 5, 2020, in Georgetown, with intent to defraud the public, they uttered a certain forged document, that is to say, a report purporting to be a true declaration of all votes cast in District Four for the March 2, 2020 General and Regional elections, knowing said report to be forged.
Former GECOM Region Four RO, Clairmont Mingo.
APNU+AFC Activist, Carol Smith-Joseph.
Mingo also faced another joint charge with Smith-Joseph. That charge alleges that on March 13, 2020, they uttered a forged document purporting to be a true report of all votes cast in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional elections, while knowing that the report was forged.
Additionally, Smith-Joseph faces two individual charges which state that on March 13, 2020, at High and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown, she conspired with Mingo and others to declare a fraudulent count of votes for District Four for both the general and regional elections.
Mingo, Lawrence and Smith-Joseph were each released on $100,000 bail.
Additionally Livan, who was named in a USB flash drive scandal surrounding the tabulations of votes that happened on March 5, 2020, was slapped with one fraud charge.
PNC Chairperson, Volda Lawrence.
February, another GECOM employee, is facing two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud. Miller and Bab-Cummings, who are GECOM clerks, were both slapped with two fraud charges each.
It is alleged that between March 2 and August 2, 2020, at Georgetown, Mingo, conspired with Lawrence, Smith-Joseph, February, Livan, Bab-Cummings, Miller and others to defraud the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes for the elections.
In October 2021, Statements of Poll (SOPs) and Statements of Recount (SORs) were handed over to the defendants’ attorneys on a previous hearing of the matter along with other statements and video evidence.
Earlier in 2021, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan had ruled on the mode of trial for Lawrence, Mingo and Smith-Joseph. The Magistrate had ruled that the matter will be tried summarily. The police had announced in August 2020, that they will be conducting a comprehensive investigation into the criminal conduct of former Chief Elections Officer, Lowenfield; former Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers; Mingo and others, in relation to the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections and the events that followed.
During the probe, several GECOM officials were arrested and placed before the court for electoral fraud charges.
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