2020 elections fraud trial-GECOM PRO outlines procedure for publishing election info on website

Guyanese Elections Commission (GECOM) Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward on Monday outlined the process for clearing and publishing election-related information and documents on the Commission’s website during the March 2020 general and regional elections. Warde was testifying in the ongoing elections fraud trial, which has attracted considerable public attention, before Principal Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. She told the court that GECOM has a website and explained that information intended for dissemination to the press had to receive clearance before being released and simultaneously uploaded to the website. Ward said the process could be initiated by instructions from Chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh or the Commission.

She explained that information intended for publication first had to receive the necessary “clearance, whether it’s for dissemination to the press and simultaneously upload to our website and social media pages.” Taking the court through the publication of the Form 24 declarations, Ward said that on March 7, 2020, she was tasked with forwarding declarations made by Returning Officers for the various electoral districts to then GECOM Information Technology (IT) Manager, Aneal Giddings. Giddings, who now serves as Guyana’s Data Protection Commissioner, was responsible for uploading the documents to the Commission’s website. She said she received the documents from then Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield in a consolidated list containing declarations made by the respective Returning Officers. The documents, she testified, were provided to her on a flash drive. She said she transferred them to her desktop computer before emailing them to the IT Manager for uploading to GECOM’s website. Ward said Giddings acknowledged receipt and indicated that the task had been completed. She told the court that she then checked the website to ensure the documents had been published. Asked by Special Prosecutor, Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat whether she had checked to confirm the documents were published, Ward replied: “Well, yes, as usual, I checked to verify that it is visible on the website.”

Asked how she conducted the verification, she simply responded: “I checked the website.” The PRO said she saw the publication of Form 24 declarations for the 10 electoral districts, covering both the general and regional elections. Ward also testified about events on March 14, 2020, when previously published Form 24 documents were removed and replaced with two new declarations. The witness said she was instructed to remove the previously published forms and have the two replacement documents uploaded. Ward acknowledged that she did not review the replacement documents in detail, but said she observed what appeared to be signatures on them. Defence counsel objected to questions concerning the signatures, arguing that sufficient foundation had not been laid to establish how Warde could identify them. The court subsequently clarified that her evidence was being taken only for the fact that she observed signatures on the documents and not as evidence of their authenticity. The witness later said there “appeared to be two signatures” on the replacement documents. The court also heard that on July 24, 2020, the GECOM chairperson requested the publication of the final, gazetted election results. Ward said the relevant declarations were sent to the IT Manager for publication. Ward further testified that on September 21, 2020, Justice Singh, informed her that she had received a telephone call concerning a report about the publication of election declarations on the Commission’s website. According to her, Justice Singh subsequently asked her to provide the dates on which the declarations had been published. After supplying the requested dates, Ward said she was taken to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters, where she provided a statement detailing when the declarations had been published. Under cross-examination by Defence Attorney Eusi Anderson, however, the PRO said she had no evidence to show that any of the nine accused had colluded to defraud the electorate, rigged the 2020 General and Regional Elections, or forged signatures or election documents. Ward said that her role at GECOM was limited to public relations and that she was not involved in the counting of ballots, the tabulation of Statements of Poll (SOP) or the verification of election declarations.