The 2020 Presidential Candidate for The Citizenship Initiative (TCI), Rondha-Ann Lam took the witness box today as the trial into the allegations of fraud at the 2020 Elections recommenced in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

During her testimony, Ms. Lam detailed instances of widespread discrepancies. However, under cross-examination, she admitted that she had no documentary evidence to support many of her claims.

Lam, whose party was not initially accredited to observe the Elections by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), told the acting Chief Magistrate, Faith McGusty that it was not until March 4, 2020 – two days after the elections – that she received the necessary accreditation through the intervention of the Chairman of the Elections Commission, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh.

Lam said upon gaining access to the Tabulation Room at GECOM’s Command Center in the Ashmin’s Building, she learned that the then Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo had fallen ill, and a deputy Returning Officer would be sworn in to act in his absence.

According to her, the tabulation process went smoothly until about 8pm on March 4, 2020.

She said it was then that agents for the various political parties and observers observed that the numbers on their SOPs were vastly different from the numbers that were being tabulated by GECOM officials in the room.

Though her party did not have accredited party agents in polling stations on the day of the elections, Lam told the Court that through a number of avenues, she along with other members of her party secured copies of 330 Statements of Poll (SOPs).

According to her, she had personally verified 102 of those SOPs.

“What I observed based on what we had independently verified…there was a methodical raising and lowering of votes, raising of those votes were in favor of the incumbent APNU+AFC and the lowering was to the disadvantage of the PPP/C – the opposition party,” Lam said.

Lam told the Court she objected to alteration of votes, and within minutes there were loud arguments over the discrepancies.

She said the situation deteriorated later that night into the next morning, when IT Technician, Enrique Livan was seen leaving the tabulation room with a flash drive, which he had allegedly removed from the Commission’s computer.

Livan was later accused of tampering with the elections data.

By March 5, the process, according to Lam, had been completely derailed, and the Returning Officer had attempted to declare the results of the elections for Region 4 prematurely, resulting in fierce objections. There was a second attempt to declare the results on March 13, Lam told the Court.

However, while being cross-examined by Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes, Lam admitted that the majority of the SOPs secured by her party were sourced through third parties.

Added to that, she admitted that while she made a number of “posts” on her Facebook page, she had no documentary evidence, written notes, video or audio recordings of the various events that unfolded, including the alleged attempt by Mingo to declare the regards of the elections.

“I have no written record, just what I posted on Facebook,” she said in response to a question on the alleged declaration made by Mingo.

Lam told the Court that her “posts” were general and did not include the alleged results declared by Mingo. At the time, she was unable to hear clearly what Mingo was saying but concluded that it was a declaration. 

Further, Lam admitted that in her statement to the Guyana Police Force, she did not include any documentary evidence regarding the discrepancies she observed but said a document with the requisite information was handed over the police. Hughes has since asked that the document be handed over to the Court.

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