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Elections’ fraud trial to resume tomorrow
Elections’ fraud trial to resume tomorrow
Kaieteur News- The trial concerning the 2020 Election Fraud case is set to resume on Friday, where the matter will either continue before Senior Magistrate Leroy Daly or go before a new magistrate.
Originally scheduled to continue on October 31 at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, the trial has been postponed to November 1 due to the public holiday for Diwali.
The 19 conspiracy charges were brought to the court in 2021 and trial commenced in July 2024. However, the trial has since faced multiple delays, the most recent being the illness of Senior Magistrate Daly, who announced her condition in early August. The trial was further delayed in September as she remained unwell.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall addressed the ongoing situation during his “Issues in the News” commentary on Tuesday night, stating that should Magistrate Daly remain unwell, a new magistrate should be appointed to oversee the case. In this situation, the trial will have to start anew. “What I have called on the judiciary for and what I am reiterating is if the Magistrate is not present, that a new magistrate be assigned to the case and that the new Magistrate set very firm and early timelines for the trial of the case to recommence. Once a Magistrate is changed, the rule is that…they must start afresh if the trials were commenced,” Nandlall explained. He emphasized the need for fixed timeframes for the trials to commence and continue over a definite period, especially with the upcoming 2025 elections approaching while the 2020 election fraud case remains unresolved. Nandlall remarked, “They have travelled a very unfortunate course, a course littered by delay and delay tactics.”
During the last court proceedings on September 17, 2024, Principal Magistrate Faith McGusty presided over the hearing and further adjourned the trial. She informed both the prosecution and defence that if Magistrate Daly continues to be unwell, the court may need to assign the case to a different magistrate or court. “If her illness continues, we (the court) as well as the prosecution and defence may be forced to take another route, in which case certain submissions may have to be made regarding the viability of the matter proceeding before another court or magistrate,” Magistrate McGusty stated.
The trial initially began on July 29, 2024, but was briefly adjourned three days later and rescheduled for September 17 due to Magistrate Daly’s illness. To date, only two prosecution witnesses have testified, with one testimony still incomplete.
The trial involves nine defendants facing 19 conspiracy charges. The accused include former GECOM Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield; former Returning Officer for District Four Clairmont Mingo; former Deputy Chief Election Officer Roxanne Myers; former Minister Volda Lawrence; APNU+AFC’s Chief Scrutineer Carol Smith Joseph; and former GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Liven, Michelle Miller, and Denise Babb-Cummings. Most of the defendants appeared at the hearing, but Miller, February, and Babb-Cummings were absent. Former Minister Lawrence participated virtually.
The charges allege that between March 2 and August 2, 2020, at Ashmins’ Building in Georgetown, Lowenfield, Mingo, and Myers conspired with Lawrence, Joseph, February, Liven, Cummings, Miller, and others to defraud the electors of Guyana by presenting false votes from the March 2, 2020, general and regional elections.
(Elections’ fraud trial to resume tomorrow)
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