Minister of Local Government, Sonia Parag, returned to the witness box today as the Election Fraud case continued before the Acting Chief Magistrate.

Under cross-examination by Defence Attorney Nigel Hughes this morning, Ms. Parag, who was an agent for the PPP at the last elections, admitted that she had not supplied the Court with any evidence, in particular, samples of Statements of Poll (SOP) from the 2020 Election, to support her claims that Elections Officials, at the time, had inflated the number of votes cast in favor of APNU+AFC.

The Court heard that the SOPs in Parag’s possession, at the time of tabulation, did not indicate that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won Region Four. But she maintained that the numbers were inflated in favour of the coalition on March 5.

“Is it correct to say that all the statements you had made about tabulation and inconsistencies and difference in numbers, you have not brought a single SOP to confirm, verify or contradict what you said?” Hughes asked.

In response, Parag admitted she did not.

At the time, she was there to observe the tabulation and verification process of the votes cast for the various political parties that contested the Elections.

Minutes into the cross-examination, Parag was asked  by Hughes repeatedly to respond directly to the questions posed.

Citing a portion of the ruling of the High Court, in the case that challenged the first “declaration” made on March 5, Hughes submitted to Parag that the Returning Officer and the Deputy Returning Officer had the exclusive power to decide on the method of tabulation and whether or not it should continue or start afresh following the chaos that erupted on March 5.

“It cannot be for the persons present to dictate how this should be conducted,” Hughes said as he further quoted extracts from the acting Chief Justice’s ruling.

Parag in response told the Court that “I don’t think anyone else determined how the process should be conducted.”

Thanking her for her “generosity,” Hughes told Parag, that was not what he asked.

“What I asked you, was that that the Chief Justice was saying very clearly that nobody else other than the RO and the DRO could determine the process,” Hughes clarified with Parag responding in the positive.

However, Parag said as an agent of a political party, she did not believe that her role at the time was merely to observe the tabulation process.

In her earlier testimony, she stated that she had repeatedly objected to attempts to inflate the numbers, and to unlawfully declare the results of the process without the process being completed.

In the ongoing trial, former Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, the former Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers and former Region 4 Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo along with six other persons are accused of electoral fraud.

The other defendants are: Member of Parliament, Volda Lawrence; People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) Member Carol Smith-Joseph; and Election Officers Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Bobb-Cummings and Michelle Miller.

They are facing 19 conspiracy charges relating to an attempt to declare fraudulent results during the course of the 2020 Elections.

Related posts:

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