Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson, who was the then Region Four Counting Agent for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) during the March 2020 elections, said his efforts to deliver a letter requesting a recount of votes tabulated for District Four to Returning Officer (RO) Clairmont Mingo had been frustrated by police officers.
Ramson, testifying on Wednesday before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 2020 elections, said that after Mingo declared the results for District Four on March 5, 2020 on the ground floor of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Command Centre, at the Ashmin’s Building, he never got the chance to serve his party’s letter on Mingo as he (Mingo) had swiftly gone to the third floor of the building.
Ramson told the CoI almost all other party agents disagreed with the reported results, causing them to have letters written to Mingo requesting a recount. Ramson said to his recollection no one was able to directly serve those letters on Mingo as all party agents were barred by police officers from approaching him. “I had a letter prepared for the request for a recount…well I attempted to serve this letter on Mr. Mingo who was already up on the third floor and I was blocked by police officers who were manning the stairway.”
He said the late Guyana Elections Commissioner Bibi Shadick intervened and he was allowed to access the third floor. Ramson said he noticed that the exterior handles of all the office doors on that floor were missing. “All of the offices had steel doors but their locks, the handles were removed from the exterior of the door, so there was no way of turning a handle to get into the office, and then I rapped on every single door for good ten minutes or so and no one answered, no door opened…I never got to see him (Mingo) while I was on the third floor,” said Ramson. Ramson said his wait on the third floor lasted from half an hour to an hour. During that time he saw a group of paramedics climbing up the stairs and heading towards the office of GECOM’s Chairperson, Claudette Singh. Ramson said at that time questions were being asked about the Chair’s wellbeing, and after witnessing the appearance of the paramedics, he returned to the ground floor.
Back on the ground floor, Ramson said to his shock he observed the sudden appearance of Mingo on the third floor and that Mingo was being guarded by police officers. “So after I went back downstairs, I was there hoping that I would be able to see him again at some point so I waited for a while. It was already getting late into the evening to a point and then I saw Mr. Mingo emerge on the Third Floor. The position that I was in I was able to see what was happening on the third floor, and this was from the ground floor…and I saw him emerge but he was circled by police officers, all in uniform and they were rapidly escorting him down the back stairway…so I ran with the letter…to serve him and then when we opened one of the doors moving into one of the section, but still a little way from him, the police officers stopped me once again and prevented me from proceeding.”
Not being able to successfully deliver his letter to Mingo, Ramson said that his other method was to send an image of the letter via WhatsApp to GECOM’s Chair, the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield and Mingo. However, Ramson noted that there was no reply to the message. Ramson said it that was not until the next day, March 6, 2020, that the actual physical letter was served, not on the RO, but rather on his clerk, whom he identified as Michelle Miller. He said that Miller claimed that she was given the authority to receive the letter. “Eventually around 11:50 we were told that we would be allowed to serve our letter[s], so around 11:53 of that said day [March 6], so just seven minutes before the 12 o’clock cut off point, we were allowed into the building. I was able to serve it [the letter] on the clerk…her name was Michelle Miller and she accepted it on behalf of GECOM and Mr. Mingo.”
