Mingo was duplicitous –Gouveia, Kanhai, Sasenarine discuss election fraud
—restructuring of GECOM Board necessary
On Saturday, Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman, Captain Gerry Gouveia, Financial Strategist, Sasenarine Singh and General-Secretary of The New Movement (TNM), Dr. Josh Kanhai appeared on the NCN programmed Production, Insight.
This was to discuss fraud committed in the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections by Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Mr. Keith Lowenfield and Returning Officer of Region Four, Mr. Clairmont Mingo to rig the elections in the favor of APNU+AFC.
Dr. Kanhai, who filed charges against Mr. Lowenfield for misconduct and fraud said that as a young person, he did not want to see a repetition of the five-month fiasco ever again in Guyana’s history.
“We may forget what they said, we may forget what they did, but we will never forget how they made us feel. And they made us feel stupid, they were disrespectful,” said Captain Gouveia, who added that legal action is necessary to derail other persons from repeating those actions.
Captain Gouveia, also said that the PSC had foreseen some of the issues that arose in the March 2, 2020 Elections and as such had requested that tabulations at the level of the Returning Officer be transparent.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sasenarine Singh said that the demeanour of Mr. Mingo during the counting process had changed from being a “Jekyll to a Hyde” (good to bad).
“Anybody who knows Mr. Mingo, knows he’s a quiet soft-spoken, pastoral kind of fellow, but I saw with my eyes a man who actually became angry, hitting the desk loudly saying ‘I shall not listen to you, I shall do it my way and my way is to go with the spreadsheet,’” Mr. Narine said.
Upon reading his statement in front of Mr. Mingo at the CID Headquarters on Friday, he said that there was a revert in Mingo’s personality.
“When I was there yesterday doing my statement. I saw Mr. Mingo there and I saw a man who went from immense power and abuse to a man who is now trying to save himself from jail,” Mr. Narine also added.
He further said that Mr.Mingo tried to steal democracy by limiting the number of people in the building and allowing only one representative from each party.
Captain Gouveia, Narine and Dr Kanhai also joined in calling for the GECOM Board to be restructured, and allow for independent stakeholders from the Private Sector Commission and Bar Association.
Further, Captain Gouveia called for GECOM to make use of technology advancements for security purposes such as fingerprint scanners and more security cameras to capture video and photos of persons upon entering GECOM compounds.