A number of certified Statements of Poll (SOPs) from the 2020 elections were tendered into evidence today as the trial into the allegations of attempted fraud during those elections resumed before Acting Chief Magistrate, Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

The tendering of the SOPs saw the return of Police Inspector Nigel Stephens to the stand.

Stephens had earlier testified that on May 29, 2021 he was part of a process that resulted in the verification of SOPs from the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.

The SOPs were delivered to the Office of the Registrar of the High Court by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on the instructions of the Court, Stephens explained.

The SOPs tendered into evidence today were from District 4 and included results from both the General and Regional Elections.

Last month, the Registrar of the High Court, Sueanna Lovell, who served as the custodian of Statements of Poll and Statements of Recount, told the Court that following the 2020 Elections, the then acting Chief Justice Roxane George ordered that all the SOPs and SORs be handed over to her as a result of the petitions filed.

Those electoral documents were reportedly delivered to the Registrar on January 27, 2021

Lovell said since then, she is the only person who has had possession of the documents that are key to the ongoing trial.

However, she had also disclosed that a subsequent order issued by the High Court had resulted in copies of the SOPs and SORs being printed for submission to the Guyana Police Force and the Director of Public Prosecution.

Those copies, according to her, were made in her secretariat, and the original documents were again secured. It was noted that before they were secured for a second time, they were all verified.

Nine persons, including the former Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy Chief Elections Officers (DCEO) Roxanne Myers and former Region 4 Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo are on trial.

The other defendants in the case are former Health Minister and 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. They, however, have all maintained their innocence.

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