Prosecution in electoral fraud case against PNCR officials, GECOM officials get more time to put Statements of Pol, Recount in order

Last Updated on Friday, 27 August 2021, 12:20 by Denis Chabrol

Chief Magistrate Ann Mc Lennan  on Friday gave the prosecution time to put the Statements of Poll and Statements of Recount in order to present to disclose to all of the parties in the case.

The case of conspiracy to defraud against former officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the Chairman of the People’s National Congress Reform, Volda Lawrence has been put down to October 11 when the evidence would be disclosed to the parties and the schedule for submissions and hearings would be given.

Prosecutor Darshan Ramdhani and his team successfully asked the court for more time to provide more bundles of the statements of poll and statements of recount in properly labelled and indexed form.  His request stemmed from the fact that only three bundles of the Statements of the Recount and Statements of Recount were properly photocopied. The others, he said, had pages that could not be deciphered. “They were not copied properly… They were not all consistent,” he told the court.

He said due to the problem with the photocopying, the police were able to extract properly copied pages to compile three bundles for presentation the court on Friday. He said the Statements of Poll and Statements of Recount are made up of thousands of pages. “An entire room of the Police Department has been dedicated to this exercise,” he added.

The Chief Magistrate asked the prosecution to ensure that each container and each package inside are boldly labelled by Region/ Electoral District as well as indexed. Currently, each pile is held together by rubber bands in a covered plastic container.

The prosecution also intends to present video evidence in the trial. Charged with defrauding Guyanese are Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, GECOM officials Sheffern February, Michelle Miller  and Enrique Livan as well as People’s National Congress Reform activist Carol-Smith Joseph and Ms. Lawrence.