Former IT Manager at the Guyana Elections Commission, Aneal Giddings, was a no-show in Court today for the continuation of his cross-examination in the 2020 election case.

Giddings spent the past two days on the stand facing intense questioning from the Defence. When the matter resumed this morning before Principal Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty, Special Prosecutor Darshan Ramdhani informed the Court that Mr. Giddings was unable to attend Court owing to a personal matter.

Defense Attorney, Nigel Hughes, who had been cross-examining Giddings for the past two days, told the Court that he was not notified about the witness being unable to attend the hearing today. Special Prosecutor Ramdhani said the issue was “unavoidable.”

Under cross-examination over the past two days, Mr. Giddings admitted that his unauthorized removal of the Election Commission’s server from the Tabulation Centre in the Region 4 Command Center “was a gross violation” of his contractual arrangement with the Commission.

Giddings admited to removing the server from the building on March 5, 2020 following a bomb threat. He testified that he placed it into his car in the parking lot against the instructions of the then Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers.

Myers had objected to the removal of the equipment. The former IT Manager testified that he defied the instructions of the DCEO to return the equipment to the Command Centre at the time. He agreed that his actions constituted a breach of the terms of his contract.

The Court heard during his testimony earlier this week that the server was returned to the Tabulation Centre approximately two and a half hours after its removal following the intervention of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh.

The Court also heard that Giddings and GECOM’s Data Administrator Paul Persaud remained in the Tabulation Center on March 5, 2020 after the DCEO had suspended the tabulation process and instructed everyone, including elections personnel, to go home because of the unauthorized seizure of the server.

Giddings admitted to being present in the Tabulation Centre alone with Persaud and the Statements of Poll (SOPs) after being confronted with video evidence.

He told the Court that he did not inform any of his superiors that he, along with Persaud, was present in the Tabulation Centre with the SOPs long after the tabulation process had been halted.

Hughes suggested, and Giddings agreed, that at the time he had the opportunity to switch and or alter the SOPs, and even remove them from the building. Mr. Giddings, however, did not admit to doing anything of the sort.

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