GUYANA: After failing to shake his uncontroverted evidence, defense quizzed Jaskaran on his Facebook posts

Guyana - Forensic accountant Terrence Jaskaran maintained on Wednesday the integrity of his 2021 analysis while under cross-examination in the ongoing 2020 Election Fraud Trial taking place before Principal Magistrate Faith McGusty.

Jaskaran’s 2021 report identified substantial

differences between certified Statements of Poll for Region Four and figures declared by GECOM on March 5 and March 13, 2020.

Speaking with reporters, Prosecutor Latchmie Rahamat said Jaskaran’s Facebook posts, which featured prominently during cross-examination, did not affect the professional exercise he was asked to perform.

“He is a professional, and he did not have his views affect his professionalism,” Rahamat said, adding that Jaskaran “has maintained the integrity of his report.”

Jaskaran’s assignment was to tabulate the votes on certified copies of Statements of Poll, compare them with the GECOM spreadsheets used to produce the Form 24 declarations, and report the differences. He maintained that he was not asked to authenticate the SoPs or determine how the discrepancies arose.

His analysis found 116,215 votes for APNU+AFC from the certified SoPs, compared with 136,458 votes in the March 5 declaration, a difference of 20,243.

The March 13 declaration listed 136,057 votes for the coalition, a difference of 19,842.For the PPP/C, the SoP-based total was 80,288 votes.

The March 5 declaration recorded 77,329 votes, or 2,959 fewer, while the March 13 declaration recorded 77,231, a difference of 3,057.

The combined differences changed an approximate 15,000-vote PPP/C lead on the overall certified SoPs into an approximate 7,000-vote APNU+AFC lead in the declarations.

On Wednesday, Jaskaran also testified that he had previously undertaken work during the APNU+AFC administration (2015-2020), including audits involving the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee and the Central Immigration and Passport Office.

He further said under oath that he performed accounting work for senior APNU+AFC members.

The defence has not challenged the arithmetic in Jaskaran’s report. Its questioning has instead focused on views he expressed on social media as a citizen.

Rahamat said Jaskaran maintained that he was entitled to those opinions and that they did not compromise his work as an accountant.

Aneal Giddings, Information Technology Manager of GECOM, returned to the stand on Wednesday afternoon for further cross-examination concerning his movements on March 5, 2020, when a bomb scare prompted the evacuation of the Ashmin’s Building.

Giddings denied the defense’s suggestion that he left a server in a vehicle for two unknown men to access.

He maintained that he locked the vehicle, retained the key, and went to the muster point after the evacuation.

Francis Bailey was also called to the stand on Wednesday. He confirmed a 2015 voter-awareness video recording in which former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield addressed whether a person could vote twice.

Bailey identified both the recording and Lowenfield’s voice, and the recording was admitted into evidence.

Rahamat said the video showed Lowenfield stating emphatically in 2015 that GECOM’s procedures made double voting impossible.