The trial into the attempts to derail the 2020 General and Regional Elections resumed on Tuesday.
Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag was one of two persons questioned as the trial restarted.
Parag spoke about efforts to derail the tabulation of ballots after polls closed. And she told persons that she “guarded” the Statement of Polls (SOPs) in her possession while efforts were made to inflate the figures using a spreadsheet to show that the APNU+AFC had secured more votes.
Parag was a candidate for the PPP/C at the time of the elections. She was tasked with comparing the figures from SOPs during the tabulation and verification of votes cast in Region Four. This process was conducted at the Ashmins building in Georgetown.
During this process, Parag said efforts were made by officials from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Micelle Miller to inflate the numbers to show that APNU+AFC gathered more votes than the PPP/C.
Elections Fraud Trial: Parag details ‘chaos and shouting’ to prevent declaration of fake results
“I recalled standing up and saying that the numbers that were being called are not the numbers I have in my SOP. They were adding for APNU and deducting for PPP.
“I objected to every single one of those boxes, from 4001 to 4007, the numbers did not match for the copies that I had of the SOPs. Every time that I objected I called out the numbers that I had,” Parag said on Tuesday.
She made this disclosure when she took the witness stand at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court where the trial into the electoral fraud resumed. Chief Magistrate (ag) Faith McGusty is the presiding magistrate.
In her testimony, Parag detailed among other things, discrepancies with the numbers during the verification and tabulation of votes cast in Region Four. She also spoke about attempts to clear the building and a false declaration made by the Returning Officer of Region Four, Clairmont Mingo.
While the chaos ensued, Parag told the court she “guarded” the SOPs.
“I remained with my SOPs because I couldn’t just leave them.
“The Police said that there was a bomb scare in the building. I remained where I was. I wasn’t moving because I didn’t believe there was a bomb scare in the building,” Parag told the court.
The process eventually continued but was moving “very slow,” according to Parag. Then GECOM staff, including Miller, started to complain of being tired and wanted to stop the tabulation process for the day.
There were objections again and eventually the staff were replaced by two others including Enrique Liven.
Eventually, she said, they too got tired.
“There was a lot of commotion outside. You could have hear noises. For that evening, the process was stopped,” Parag said.
The stalling detailed took place on March 4, 2020. The following day, the tabulation did not continue. Instead, Parag said attempts were made to get persons to evacuate the building but she said she did not.
In the afternoon, Parag recalled Mingo making a declaration of votes cast in Region Four.
“I stood up. I said you cannot do this. The tabulation exercise for Region 4 was not completed.
“He held onto his head and said he is returning to the sick bay and he walked out of the room. As a matter of fact the entire place became chaotic…there were a lot of persons shouting,” Parag told the court in her sworn testimony.
This action, she said, saw an application being filed before the Chief Justice, Roxanne George for several injunctions.
Three injunctions were granted one of which restrained Mingo from declaring the results until the tabulation and verification process was completed.
Then on March 13, Parag related that the tabulation process resumed but it was moved to GECOM headquarters in Kingston, Georgetown.
There, Parag said the votes were being “quickly” tabulated using a bedsheet.
This, Parag added, resulted in continuous objections; the objections were made by Parag and other PPP/C representatives and observers.
And though she could not compare the figures displayed due to poor visibility, Parag told the court that the process continued and Mingo made another declaration.
“The numbers on the spreadsheet was ‘very blurred.’ I was trying to keep up with the numbers by comparing with my own SOPs but I couldn’t, so you really couldn’t verify the numbers,” Parag said.
This led to a recount process– which she also participated in for 33 days- which showed that the PPP/C had majority of the votes in the 2020 elections.
Rosalinda Rasul, who was an election observer with the American Chamber of Commerce in Guyana (AMCHAM), also testified on Tuesday.
Nine individuals are currently before the court, charged with conspiring to manipulate the election results in favour of APNU+AFC, thereby seeking to deny victory to the PPP. Those charged include former government minister Volda Lawrence, former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, and former Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers, among others.
The controversy surrounding the March 2020 elections delayed the results for five months until PPP candidate Irfaan Ali was sworn in as president in August 2020.
The trial continues on Wednesday. However, Parag has national duties which require her attention. So another witness is expected to give evidence.
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