By INEWS

Copyright inewsguyana

Former Region Four Returning Officer for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Clairmont Mingo, evaded questions during a police interview on August 26, 2020, at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

He skirted around inquiries about whether he made declarations of the 2020 elections result on March 5 and March 12, whether the signatures on the declaration forms were his, and what method he used to arrive at the figures he announced for those polls.

This is according to a recording played to the court on Thursday when proceedings in the trial of the election fraud case continued before Chief Magistrate (acting) Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrate Court.

The video was played as part of the testimony of Police Officer Romario Campbell, a crime scene examiner, videographer and fingerprinting specialist, who recorded the police questioning of Mingo on August 26, 2020.

In the video, Mingo can be seen being interrogated by Head of Major Crimes Unit Senior Superintendent Mitchell Caesar and another officer.

Mingo is seen acknowledging that the numbers generated for the declaration of the elections results are supposed to come from the Statements of Poll (SOPs).

However, Caesar questioned Mingo on how there were more than 160 instances where the numbers on the SOPs submitted are different from the numbers that Mingo would have declared. When shown a copy of a Form 24 with a signature purported to be his, Mingo said he would not confirm that the signature on the form was his.

“I wouldn’t commit and say,” Mingo noted.

Questioned about what became of the SOPs, Mingo noted that they were handed over to the then Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield.

“The SOP from me… those were sent back to the [GECOM] Headquarters a long, long time ago. It becomes the property of the Chief Elections Officer,” Mingo noted.

Questioned about discrepancies in the declarations made on March 5, and then a subsequent declaration on March 12, Mingo noted that he had never confessed to having made to declarations.

“I still have not confirmed,” Mingo noted.

However, Caesar confronted him with the evidence and witnesses.

“The thing is, Mr. Mingo, it’s public knowledge that you made two declarations. To sit and say you don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty… in confirming you made two declarations, you leave me with no other alternative than to confront you with someone who was there when you made one of those two declarations,” Caesar noted as he prepared to bring in witnesses.

Mingo pleaded for an opportunity to go off the record to explain himself. This was refused by Caesar.

“We are aware of two declarations made. What do you want to clarify?,” Caesar noted.

Sonia Parag, who at the time functioned as an Elections Agent for the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC), was later brought into the room and gave testimony to witnessing Mingo making attempts to make a declaration of the results for Region Four on March 5, notwithstanding the tabulation of the SOPs not having been completed.

Parag also spoke of the pandemonium that unfolded. Mingo chose not to respond to Parag’s claims when given an opportunity to do so.

Mingo is among nine individuals currently facing 19 charges of conspiracy to commit electoral fraud for the events that occurred following the March 2, 2020 GRE. Other persons charged include Lowenfield, then Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, APNU+AFC Government Minister Volda Lawrence; former GECOM APNU+AFC’s Chief Scrutineer Carol Smith-Joseph; and former GECOM employees Enrique Livan, Sheffern February, Michelle Miller and Denise Babb-Cummings.

The election report of former CEO Lowenfield claimed the APNU/ AFC coalition had garnered 171,825 votes, while the PPP/C had gained 166,343 votes.

Lowenfield has never explained how he arrived at those figures, since the certified results from the recount exercise supervised by GECOM and a high-level team from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) pellucidly showed that the PPP/C won with 233,336 votes, while the then coalition garnered 217,920.

The trial continues on Friday.