{"id":24614,"date":"2024-12-05T13:25:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T13:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=24614"},"modified":"2024-12-05T13:25:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T13:25:33","slug":"election-fraud-case-returns-to-court-for-legal-submissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/election-fraud-case-returns-to-court-for-legal-submissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Fraud Case Returns to Court for Legal Submissions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p><em>By Nakasia Logan | November 6, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The election fraud case, involving over thirty charges, returned to court today before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legal discussions centered on whether the case should be tried summarily or via a preliminary inquiry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both parties agreed to submit written arguments, with deadlines set for November 27, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the hearing, the defense, led by Attorney Nigel Hughes, argued that the case should begin anew, a legal process known as \u201cDe Novo.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast, Senior Counsel Dharshan Ramdhani emphasized that traditionally, summary trials are handled directly by a magistrate who reviews the evidence and delivers a verdict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He pointed out that prior magistrates, including Chief Magistrate Isaacs and Magistrate Daly, had determined that most charges should be tried summarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramdhani further stressed that the case had already been delayed for over three years, and that his witnesses, numbering 72, were eager to testify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these challenges, both sides agreed to file written submissions by November 27. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On December 9, the court will reconvene to address any new points raised in the submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case involves nine defendants, including former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield and former Minister of Government Volda Lawrence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They face charges such as misconduct in public office, uttering forged documents, and plotting to deceive voters by declaring false election results during the 2020 general and regional elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senior Counsel Ramdhani expressed optimism that once the submissions are reviewed, the Acting Chief Magistrate would swiftly render a decision, potentially allowing the case to move forward or reach a conclusion soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nakasia Logan | November 6, 2024 The election fraud case, involving over thirty charges, returned to court today before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty. Legal discussions centered on whether&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24615,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24614\/revisions\/24615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}