Embattled Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo and two persons who worked closely with him during the March 2 General and Regional Election remain in police custody assisting with an investigation into alleged electoral fraud.
Mingo was arrested on Tuesday at his Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara (ECD) home and escorted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) where he is being questioned in relation to the well-documented attempts to alter the results of the recently concluded election.
Meanwhile, two election officials who worked closely with Mingo were also taken into police custody.
INews understands that the two officials also remain in custody assisting with the investigations.
One of the officials has been identified as 42-year-old Carolyn Duncan, a registration officer attached to the Better Hope Office of the Guyana Elections Commission. According to the Police Force, she was also attached to Mingo’s Secretariat.
The police, however, have not released the identity of the other election official in police custody.
It is expected that more persons will be brought in for questioning as the investigation widens.
Mingo, who served as the Region Four Returning Officer, has been accused of attempting to alter the results of the March 2 elections of that district in favour of the APNU/AFC Coalition.
The Police Force, a few days ago, announced that it was investigating alleged criminal conduct by Mingo along with others including the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield who is also currently facing private criminal fraud charges before the courts.
It was Mingo’s attempts to alter the results of the elections which led to the national recount exercise which ultimately proved the major differences in the figures being called by the RO compared to the actual numbers of votes cast.
The difference was noted by the Head of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Guyana, Bruce Golding who had stated that he has never seen such a “transparent effort to alter the results of an election”.
For example, in ballot box 4062, the SOP indicated 182 votes for the APNU/AFC coalition and 43 votes for the PPP/C. However, Mingo reported those results as 292 votes for APNU/AFC and 32 for PPP/C.
This is just one out of hundreds of instances where Mingo attempted to alter the results of the election in favour of the APNU/AFC coalition.
Interestingly now, it is APNU/AFC lawyers – Darren Wade and Roysdale Forde – who are now representing Mingo.
