Former Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers has had her libel suit against Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo thrown out by High Court Judge Navindra Singh, who ruled, among other things, that Jagdeo’s statement that Myers was holding Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair Claudette Singh hostage, was not defamatory.
Myers had filed a libel suit against the Vice President in the High Court in March 2021, followed by an amended claim three months later, claiming that Jagdeo during an interview on March 5, 2020, defamed her in an interview.
At the time, efforts were being made to serve the GECOM Chair with a High Court injunction, to prevent the declaration of disputed results from the Region Four counting of the votes. Those efforts had been futile, however, because the GECOM Chair had been locked up in a room in Ashmins’ Building, which was the tabulation center.
During the interview, Jagdeo had said that the GECOM Chair was being held hostage in the room by Myers, as part of a plot hatched in Congress Place. However, while Myers claimed in her libel suit that these statements were defamatory, Justice Singh in his ruling disagreed.
According to the Judge, Myers did not even deny the specific allegations Jagdeo made about her holding the GECOM Chairperson hostage, nor did Myers, who was represented by Attorney-at-Law Eusi Anderson, offer facts deemed adequate enough to rebut Jagdeo. Instead, she issued a general denial and claimed that Jagdeo could not prove his allegations.
“(Criminal Procedure Rules) 69.01 (4) places a positive obligation on the claimant to provide sufficient factual rebuttal of the facts alleged in a statement of defense to enable the defendant to appreciate why the words are inaccurate or unsupportable. In this regard, the court finds that the claimant failed to rebut the defense of truth as pleaded by (Jagdeo) with respect to those statements,” the judgement states.
According to the judgement, Jagdeo’s comments on the GECOM Chair being held hostage were a mix of fact and opinion. The fact remains that Jagdeo tried to meet and numerous persons attempted to make contact, with the Chairperson but were unable to do so. It is also factual that Myers went into and remained in the room with the Chairperson, from whom no statements or explanations were forthcoming.
“He is asserting that based on the circumstances he articulated in the interview, he held the honest belief that the Chairperson was being held hostage and that her movement was being restricted. He further described his personal attempt to meet with the Chairperson, which he perceived was blocked by (Myers)… in this case, as stated, the facts upon which (Jagdeo) says he relied on were not effectively denied,” the ruling states.
The judge therefore upheld Jagdeo’s defense of truth, contained in his Statement of Defense. Jagdeo had filed an application on January 25, 2024, asking the court to determine whether the statements complained about by Myers were defamatory.
Myers’ amended case against Jagdeo, as well as against News Room, which published Jagdeo’s comments, were thus dismissed. The Judge also ordered that Myers pay costs in the sum of $500,000 to each of the defendants, on or before September 12, 2024. Jagdeo was represented by Attorneys-at-Law Devindra Kissoon, Abhimanyu Dev and Natasha Vieira.
In August 2021, Myers, along with Keith Lowenfield and Clairmont Mingo, were terminated from their posts as Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), CEO and Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer, respectively.
Myers was arrested in October 2022 after she surrendered herself at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters moments before the Police Force was able to issue a ‘Wanted’ bulletin for her arrest.
Lawyers representing Myers contended that she had been arrested for “perverting the course of justice”, but the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has contended that she had been detained for “conspiracy to defraud”.
The GPF reported that its ranks had been trying for over a month to question DCEO Myers in regard to electoral fraud committed at the March 2, 2020 polls. “However, those efforts were futile, as Ms. Myers made every effort to elude the Police investigators,” the GPF had said in explaining that a ‘Wanted’ bulletin had consequently been prepared, but before it was released, Myers had shown up at CID Headquarters in the company of her attorneys.
According to the GPF, “Ms. Myers was promptly arrested for the offence of ‘conspiracy to defraud’, and she was told of the allegation at the said time. She then exercised her right to remain silent.”
Myers is among nine persons before the court charged with electoral fraud. The others are Mingo; Lowenfield; former People’s National Congress/Reform Chairperson Volda Lawrence; PNCR activist Carol Smith-Joseph; and GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Michelle Miller and Denise Babb-Cummings.
They are facing 28 charges relating to electoral fraud. Among the offences these defendants are accused of committing are: misconduct while holding public office; presenting falsified documentation; and planning to manipulate Guyana’s voters by presenting an inaccurate vote total.
Meanwhile, with only three hearings completed, the 2020 elections fraud trial, which was slated to continue on August 5, has been deferred until September, as presiding Magistrate Leron Daly has been placed on 30 days’ sick leave.
