Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Sonia Parag testified on Tuesday as the second witness in the high-profile 2020 electoral fraud trial.
The proceedings are currently being heard by Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
The defendants in the ongoing 2020 electoral fraud trial are nine individuals who held various political and electoral roles during the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
They include People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) activist, Carol Smith-Joseph; former Health Minister Volda Lawrence; former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield, his then deputy, Roxanne Myers; former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo; and GECOM staff members Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller.
They face 19 charges for alleged conspiracy to defraud the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections. Each has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.
The prosecution claims that the accused worked in concert to manipulate the Region Four vote tabulation to favour the then-incumbent APNU+AFC coalition and diminish the vote share of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Minister Parag, who also served as a PPP/C Candidate of the Poll, gave testimony on key irregularities she observed during the vote tabulation process.
Parag testified that she observed voting across several communities on the East Coast of Demerara on election day.
On March 3, 2020, the minister said she was sent to GECOM’s Command Centre at the Ashmins Building in Georgetown to witness the tabulation process, accompanied by local and international observers.
She stated that former Returning Officer Mingo initially conducted the verification using the Statements of Poll (SoPs), and the process was smooth until he halted tabulation around 21:00 hrs, citing exhaustion.
When Parag returned on March 4, 2020, she encountered a different setup. GECOM staffers Miller and Bowman (only name given) were in charge, and tabulation was done using spreadsheets instead of SoPs.
According to Parag, as Miller read out numbers from the spreadsheet, she noticed apparent discrepancies between the figures announced and the SoPs in her possession. She testified that the numbers inflated votes for APNU+AFC and deducted from the PPP/C.
“I objected […]. The numbers being called by Michelle Miller were actually adding votes for the APNU+AFC and deducting votes for the PPP/C,” Parag said, explaining that this pattern persisted for over 20 ballot boxes.
She testified that she recalled now Minister Kwame McCoy shouting, “They are trying to rig these elections!”
Amid growing tensions in the room, Parag recalled ANUG representative Jonathan Yearwood demanding that SoPs be produced.
Around this time, she testified that then-CEO Lowenfield entered the room and claimed that the spreadsheets were based on the SoPs. However, once the original SoPs were retrieved and used, Parag said the numbers began to align.
Parag testified that the process was again suspended around 21:00 hrs on March 4, 2020. By early the next morning, she recalled that chaos erupted after a bomb scare was reported. She remained at the centre, convinced the scare was a ploy to remove observers.
Later that day, she added that Mingo entered the room with a sheet of paper, declaring he was ready to make an announcement. Parag said she objected, stating the process was incomplete. According to her, Mingo abruptly exited, saying he was returning to his sick leave.
Shortly afterward, Parag said a declaration form appeared on GECOM’s website with Mingo’s signature, purportedly showing Region Four results.
The witness noted that this development led PPP/C General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo to file for several injunctions, resulting in the Acting Chief Justice ordering Mingo to complete the process using the SoPs.
Despite the court order, she stated that Mingo attempted to use spreadsheets again. Parag testified that she and other observers strongly objected.
Minister Parag testified that when GECOM Chairperson Claudette Singh arrived, she said she was unaware of the court ruling at the time but was awaiting a copy. By this time, contempt of court proceedings was filed against Mingo.
Parag described the resumed process on March 13, 2020, at GECOM’s Kingston office as rushed and chaotic. She observed that GECOM staffer February called out numbers too quickly, projecting them onto a blurry screen, making comparison impossible.
Minister Parag said that despite her objections, the tabulation for the general elections concluded that evening, and the process for the regional ballots was similarly rushed.
She added that she left the GECOM headquarters around 22:00 hrs, but by midnight, she saw another Region Four declaration posted on the commission’s website, once again signed by Smith-Joseph and Clairmont Mingo.
Parag said she later accompanied now-Minister Charles Ramson to formally request a recount. Minister Parag stated that this development prompted a national recount supervised by CARICOM, and after 33 days, the process confirmed that the PPP/C had secured the majority of votes.
The trial continues today with testimony from ANUG’s Kian Jabour.
Minister Parag is set to resume her testimony on Thursday.
As the trial progresses, the prosecution led by King’s Counsel Darshan Ramdhan has indicated plans to call over 70 witnesses, including the GECOM Chairperson.
The prosecution asserts that the accused officials deliberately altered Region Four’s results to show APNU+AFC victory.
A recount, overseen by GECOM and a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) delegation, confirmed that the PPP/C had won the polls by thousands of votes.
The recount verified the PPP/C’s victory, securing 233,336 votes, while the APNU+AFC coalition garnered 217,920.
