Recount exposes Mingo’s fraud in Buxton, Melanie, Paradise, Anns Grove ballot boxes

…some boxes had more votes than voters – Nandlall

In one of the most scandalous elections in recent memory, former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo has come under fire for fraudulently adding votes to A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), and in some cases taking away votes from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
The recount currently underway has revealed votes that line up almost perfectly with the Statements of Poll (SoPs) for Region Four that were released by the PPP. What they do not line up with are the figures that Mingo declared.  
Mingo’s figures would have allowed APNU/AFC to win the elections, had it not been for the united condemnation of the local and international community against the lack of credibility when he tabulated the figures.
A sample of just a few locations on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) will show exactly how the votes were manipulated in a futile attempt to rig the elections, gifting APNU/AFC with over 1500 votes it did not earn.
A case in point is ballot box 4739 (Melanie Playfield tent) in the Enterprise division, where the SoP showed APNU/AFC receiving 263 votes to the 10 received by the PPP. The Statement of Recount (SoR) generated by the recount lines up exactly to these figures. However, Mingo declared that APNU/AFC received 363 votes, an increase of 100.
Ballot box 4737 at a second Polling Station in the Melanie Playfield also showed increases. Based on the SoP, APNU/AFC received 236 votes while the PPP received 12. The SoR also shows APNU/AFC receiving 237 votes to the PPP’s 12. When Mingo made his declaration, however, APNU/AFC miraculously gained 287 votes, a 50-vote inflation.
In ballot box 4738 (also in a Melanie Playfield tent), APNU/AFC got 206 votes based on the SoP and SoR, while the PPP received 15 votes. By the time Mingo was through with this ballot box, the number had changed to 266 for APNU/AFC, a 60-vote inflation.
Another case was ballot box 4740 (Melanie Nursery School), also in the Enterprise division. On the SoP, APNU/AFC received 239 votes and the PPP, 25. On the SoR, the coalition received 238 votes and the PPP, 25. However, Mingo declared that APNU/AFC had received 339 votes, an increase of 101.
Ballot box 4743, which was also located in the Melanie Nursery School, had APNU/AFC receiving 268 votes on the SoP and the PPP, five votes. On the SoR, APNU/AFC received 269 votes and the PPP, five. Nonetheless, Mingo declared that APNU/AFC received 368 votes, gifting the coalition an extra 99 votes.
A similar story of vote manipulation exits in the Buxton/Friendship polling division. In ballot box 4723 (Friendship Primary School), both the SoP and the SoR show APNU/AFC as having received 269 votes. But despite the area being widely perceived as an APNU/AFC stronghold, Mingo felt the need to declare that APNU/AFC received 299 votes, an increase of 30.

Other boxes
There is also the case of ballot box 4724 (Buxton/Friendship division), at the same Polling Station. Mingo declared APNU/AFC as having received 388 votes… despite the SoP saying the coalition got 358 and the SoR, 357. In contrast, the PPP got two votes. Thus, Mingo inflated APNU/AFC’s votes by 31.
In addition, ballot box 4720 (Buxton Secondary School). The SoP showed APNU/AFC receiving 236 votes to two votes for the PPP. The SoR showed APNU/AFC claiming 237 votes, with no change to the PPP’s tally. However, Mingo declared 256 votes to APNU/AFC, an inexplicable increase of 19 votes.
The results in other Polling Stations in Buxton were also tampered with, including ballot box 4721 in Tipperary Hall. There, APNU/AFC got 247 in the SoP and 248 in the SoR. However, Mingo’s tabulation showed APNU/AFC with 291 votes.
Mingo added as much as 94 extra votes at the Company Road Primary School Polling Station 4718. APNU/AFC got 337 in both the SoP and SoR, while PPP got 14. However, Mingo declared APNU/AFC as having 431 votes.
Meanwhile, fraudulent figures were a prevalent feature in Melanie and Paradise, where Mingo added 70 votes (ballot box 4753), 80 votes (ballot box 4750) and 60 (box 4738).
At Anns Grove Secondary School, Mingo converted the 181 APNU/AFC was recorded as having in the SoP and SoR, into 221, an increase of 40 votes. In all, this publication examined SoPs and SoRs for 27 Polling Stations along the East Coast which, when compared, showed that Mingo declared 1516 extra votes in favour of APNU/AFC.

More votes than ballots
In an interview with this publication, PPP Executive and it’s East Coast agent on Elections Day, Anil Nandlall, noted that Mingo’s fraud was pervasive and the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) was no exception.
“Mingo’s fraud in Region Four was pervasive. It occurred in certain parts in Georgetown, on the East Bank. And already we have discovered over 40 boxes on the East Coast, contaminated by Mingo’s fraud.”
“He has cumulatively inflated APNU’s votes by the thousands, with as much as over 100 votes in certain Polling Stations. He had to inflate these boxes by extraordinary high numbers, to surpass the margin of votes which the PPP was leading APNU by in the nine other regions.”
Nandlall noted that even as the recount draws to a close, more evidence of Mingo’s fraudulent tabulation will come to light. According to him, it was found that in some ballot boxes there were more votes than voters.
“In some boxes, Mingo’s fraudulent number of votes gifted to APNU/AFC exceeded the number of ballots in the ballot boxes. They got more votes than the total ballots cast, on the East Coast and in certain areas in Georgetown too.”
At first willing to accept Mingo’s declarations as facts, APNU/AFC has now switched to calling the elections invalid because of alleged voter fraud they uncovered. These include allegations of dead and migrated voters.
The PPP has since found hundreds of cases where persons whom APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction but voted, were, in fact, present in Guyana at the time of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
The media itself has carried several such exposés, with APNU/AFC claims even being denied by a Berbice couple, Shirley and Aubrey Nicholson of Kortberaadt Village, who said that not only were they in Guyana on Elections Day, they voted for the coalition.
A plethora of other persons have also come forward debunking the coalition’s claims that they were out of the country on Elections Day.