Audit details discrepancies in 2020 Election declarations

Sep 19, 2026 News

(Kaieteur News) – Forensic audit consultant Terrence Jaskarran testified in court on Friday that his independent examination of certified Statements of Poll (SOPs) from the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections revealed numerical discrepancies when compared against official Form 24 declarations, most notably an inflated margin of roughly 20,000 votes for the APNU+AFC coalition in Region 4.

Taking the court through his 124-page report page by page, Jaskarran detailed the variations discovered between the raw SOP counts and the subsequent declarations.

Regarding the Region 4 General Elections, Jaskarran said he was provided with two separate Form 24 declarations for Region 4, dated March 5 and March 13, 2020. The certified SOPs accounted for 116,215 votes for the APNU+AFC. However, the March 5 declaration listed 136,458 votes (+20,243 variance), and the March 13 declaration recorded 136,057 votes (+19,842 variance). Conversely, the PPPC’s certified SOP total stood at 80,288 votes, but dropped on the declarations to 77,329 (-2,959 variance) on March 5, and 77,231 (-3,057 variance) on March 13. Smaller negative variances were also recorded for several smaller parties, while SOPs for polling stations 120, 153, and 774 were found to be blank, and SOPs 4517 and 4550 were missing entirely. For Region 1 (General Elections), the certified SOPs recorded 3,823 votes for the APNU+AFC versus 3,905 on the declaration (+82 variance). The PPPC showed 7,827 votes on the SOPs compared to 8,022 on the declaration (+195 variance). SOP 1078 was blank upon inspection. For Region 3 (General Elections), minor variances included a 2-vote increase on the declaration for ANOB and a 1-vote increase for CG. Totals for APNU+AFC (23,811) and PPPC (47,855) matched without variance. In Region 2 (General Elections), no variances were found; figures across all contesting political parties matched the Form 24 declarations precisely.

Addressing the findings, presiding Magistrate Faith McGusty noted that the evidentiary weight of Jaskarran’s testimony and report is yet to be determined, as the court must still evaluate the legal authenticity and credibility of the underlying Form 24 documents used for the comparison.

Jaskarran, a practising-chartered accountant, explained that he was contracted by the Ministry of Home Affairs for a one-year period and attached to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters. On May 25, 2021, police officer Stevens requested that he perform a tabulation, analysis, and verification exercise comparing certified SOP copies against the declared Form 24 results.

The auditor outlined accompanying Officer Stevens, Police Prosecutor Moore, and other officers to the office of Supreme Court Registrar Lovell on May 29, 2021, where copies of the Region 4 SOPs were produced and initialed. On June 3, 2021, Jaskarran commenced his tabulation in a second-floor interrogation room at CID headquarters, verifying signatures before constructing two main Excel spreadsheets for each region to cross-examine general and regional election figures. The process concluded on July 28, 2021.

Prior to the presentation of the report, defence counsels Nigel Hughes, Eusi Andderson and Dr. Dexter Todd raised objections regarding Jaskarran’s qualifications and his status as an expert witness. Under cross-examination on his background, Jaskarran defended his experience across statutory and government audits, noting that while individual forensic reports are not routinely sent for outside peer review, his firm undergoes quality assurance evaluations every five years by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Defence counsel also questioned the source of the Form 24 declarations and pointed out that the auditor was not presented with national recount data.

The court admitted Jaskarran’s audit report into evidence solely for the purpose of numerical communication and comparison. Proceedings were adjourned and are scheduled to resume on Monday at 9:30 AM.

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APNU+AFC, declarations, GECOM, SOPs, Terrence Jaskarran

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