The trial into the events surrounding the 2020 General and Regional Elections resumed on Monday after an adjournment, with testimony from Rhonda Lam, who was the Presidential Candidate for the Citizenship Initiative at the time.Before Lam took the witness stand, the court was informed that one of the defendants, Carol Smith-Joseph, had been granted a High Court order to travel overseas. As a result, she was not present in court and did not join virtually. Prosecutor Latchmie Rahamat requested that the court order be made available.Meanwhile, defence attorney Nigel Hughes informed the court that another defendant, former Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, was ill and would be unable to attend the hearing as he intended to seek medical attention.With several witnesses still to be cross-examined, the prosecution indicated that additional witnesses were scheduled to testify during the remainder of the week.The trial is being heard before Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. It resumed after several weeks of recess, which followed a site visit to the Ashmins Building—the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Command Centre during the 2020 elections and the location where many of the disputed events unfolded.Lam, giving sworn testimony, recalled her role as a key observer during the Region Four tabulation process at GECOM headquarters. She detailed what she described as widespread irregularities in the recording of votes.She explained that she had written to GECOM seeking accreditation for several agents to observe the process, but her request was denied by Mingo on the grounds that it was submitted late. By the time she eventually received temporary accreditation from then Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, Mingo had already fallen ill and was hospitalised.On March 3, 2020, Lam approached GECOM Chairperson Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh after noticing troubling online reports, including claims that political parties which had not contested certain regions were being allocated votes. Singh acknowledged the discrepancies, Lam said, and assured her they would be corrected by the end of the day.Once granted access to the Ashmins tabulation centre, Lam testified that she quickly became alarmed by what she observed. As clerks read figures from Statements of Poll (SOPs), she noticed the numbers being entered did not match her records. She claimed that figures for APNU+AFC were systematically increased in increments of 10, 20 and 30, while PPP/C votes were reduced by similar amounts. When she objected, GECOM staff attributed the discrepancies to fatigue.The situation escalated on the night of March 4, 2020, when Lam witnessed GECOM employee Enrique Livan remove a flash drive from a commission laptop and leave the room. The act caused an uproar until Livan was found in another room with the device and returned under police escort. When the process resumed, Lam noted that the tabulation appeared to skip ballot boxes, moving from the East Bank to the East Coast of Demerara, even though verification was incomplete.The following day, March 5, Lam said she was shocked when, instead of restarting verification, Mingo began declaring results. She recalled hearing him read out party names and numbers despite loud objections from party representatives. Shortly after, riot police entered the building and observers were ordered to leave. Lam said she remained behind to deliver a letter calling for a recount.Her testimony continued with reference to March 12, 2020, when SOPs displayed at GECOM headquarters appeared to have been altered, with missing digits and figures inconsistent with earlier records. Despite this, Lam said she stayed to ensure her recount request was submitted.She concluded by noting that the subsequent national recount confirmed the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) as the winner of the 2020 elections, contradicting Mingo’s earlier declarations.Lam was later cross-examined by the defence.Nine individuals are currently before the court, charged with conspiring to manipulate the election results in favour of APNU+AFC in an attempt to deny victory to the PPP. Those charged include former government minister Volda Lawrence, former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, and former Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers, among others.The trial continues on Tuesday, September 16.The post Smith-Joseph gets permission to travel abroad; Rhonda Lam details discrepancies as 2020 elections fraud trial resumes appeared first on News Room Guyana.