Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo
So far 25 ballot boxes show Mingo added 1,214 votes to APNU+AFC and subtracted 341 from PPP/C.
By Kemol King
- Kaieteur News is today reporting evidence of a 25th ballot box that shows Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo manipulating the votes of his District’s electorate to favour the governing Coalition, APNU+AFC. This latest box, Ballot Box 4143, is one recounted yesterday from a polling place housed at a private dwelling, Tracey Matthew’s Residence at Kaneville, Grove Housing Scheme, used as a place of poll on Election Day.
For this box, labelled 4143, the original statement of poll showed 72 votes for PPP/C, and 120 votes for APNU+AFC. Mingo’s tabulation added 50 votes to APNU+AFC, increasing the count to 170. The statement of recount showed an increase from the statement of poll of one vote for APNU+AFC, 121, likely due to a previously rejected vote being now considered valid at the recount.
So far, this newspaper has verified Mingo’s vote manipulation to have impacted 25 ballot boxes, all coming from polling places on the East Bank of Demerara. The manipulation occurred during the tabulation process when instead of calling out the numbers reflected on the original SOPs at various polling stations, the Returning Officer produced figures that invariably added votes to the Coalition and in many instances subtracted votes from the opposition. Kaieteur News’ analysis of the 25 ballot boxes shows that Mingo’s tabulation subtracted 341 votes from PPP/C, and added 1,214 votes to APNU+AFC. This amounts to a total variance of 1,555 votes from the corresponding statements of poll.
Kaieteur News’ analysis is based on audio recordings, published by The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) Executive Member, Shaz Ally, of Mingo’s General Election numbers being called out during the Kingston tabulation, for 21 ballot boxes, and figures supplied for four ballot boxes by the Head of the Organization of American States (OAS) Observer Mission, Bruce Golding, in the mission’s preliminary report on Guyana’s 2020 Elections to the OAS Permanent Council.
Chart showing effect of Mingo’s manipulation on EBD votes
Table detailing Mingo’s manipulation of EBD votes for 25 ballot boxes.
