Election-related materials from the March 2, 2020 General Elections including Statements of Poll (SOPs) from all the policing divisions across the country were sent to a WhatsApp group which included the top brass of the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
This is according to former Commander of Region Two, Superintendent Crystal Robinson, who told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 2020 elections yesterday that she used the WhatsApp group to send SOPs which were dispatched to her following the close of polls in her district.
“At the close of polls…….the Returning Officer would do the tallying. At the end of it, they place a Statement of Poll outside of the building so the public would know that voting is finished at that building. The ranks now would take the information from there and send it to me, the divisional Commander and I would send it through the WhatsApp group,” Robinson told the CoI which is headed by retired Justice Stanley John.
While she could not say who exactly created the group, Robinson said that all the divisional and branch commanders of the force as well as the then Commissioner of Police, Leslie James and deputy Commissioners of Operation and Administration were part of it.
Referring to her statement, Justice John noted that Robinson outlined that among the information that was communicated in the WhatsApp group was the time polls opened, the number of persons still in the line at the close of polls, reports of any incidents and the ranks who were on duty at each polling station.
According to Robinson, the instruction that that information was required came from James. “That person would be the Commissioner,” Robinson told the CoI in response to a question asked by Justice John.
She said the information was sent to the group to indicate that the counting process was completed at each polling stations and the SOPs were posted outside of the buildings as required.
However, Robinson noted that the WhatsApp group was not utilized after elections day. In fact, she said it was deleted. “The group was subsequently deleted,” she said in her brief testimony which was given under oath.
Asked by Senior Counsel, Sophia Chote as to who deleted the group, Robinson, who now heads the force’s Community Relations Department could not say.
“I didn’t know who deleted the group,” she said while noting that the Commanders did not have the authority to do so.
