Party representatives and observers objected to the use of a spreadsheet to verify and tabulate votes cast in Region Four during the 2020 General and Regional elections but these objections were ignored, a witness testified Wednesday, saying the Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, threatened that they would have to leave if they objected.
Local activist, Jonathan Yearwood, made these disclosures as the trial into the 2020 electoral fraud continued at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Yearwood continued his sworn testimony before acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty. He is a former executive of A New and United Guyana (ANUG) and served as a representative of the party during the elections.
The court heard from Yearwood that when he arrived at the GECOM Command Center at Ashmin’s Building on the morning of March 13, 2020, he and other GECOM representatives were taken to a different room from the one which was designated for the verification process. The room, he said, was situated at the back of the building next to the car park.
According to Yearwood, Mingo informed those present that he won’t be reading from Statements of Poll (SOPs) to verify the votes. Instead, he said a spreadsheet was created.
Yearwood said he and other party representatives strongly objected to this.
But despite the objections, Yearwood said Mingo started to call out figures from a spreadsheet.
Yearwood said he and others had photographs in their phones of SOPs from polling stations.
“I personally took photographs,” Yearwood said.
Also, he said the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) had published the SOPs on a website.
Elections fraud trial: Local observer grilled about SOPs, declaration during cross-examination
So, Yearwood told the court that he used these documents to compare the figures Mingo was calling out from his spreadsheet. However, this task was almost impossible since, Yearwood said, the figures were “blurry”.
The use of the speedsheet saw objections.
He said while GECOM staff Denise Babb- Cummings was calling out figures he and other party representatives were objecting.
This, Yearwood said, led to local as well as international observers being threatened and verbally abused by APNU+AFC representative Carol Smith-Joseph.
Shortly after, Yearwood told the court that Mingo returned to the room and announced the tabulation and verification was suspended and would resume later the afternoon at GECOM’s Kingston, Georgetown office.
Upon noticing the setup, Yearwood said he told Mingo that if any incident erupt because of the system being used, he would be the cause of it.
Yearwood said this resulted in Smith- Joseph verbally abusing him and subsequently others.
In protest, Yearwood said he left the location and was arrested during the process. He said he was taken to the Brickdam Police Station and was subsequently released.
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 on August 2 2020.
The trial continues on Friday, June 27.
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