Aneal Giddings returned to the witness box today for intense cross-examination by defence counsel Nigel Hughes, who accused the former GECOM IT manager of being “integrally involved” in the alleged interference with Guyana’s 2020 elections.
Hughes’ questioning centred on Giddings’ handling of a GECOM server on March 5, 2020, his subsequent four-hour period alone with SOPs and his interaction with two unidentified men in the GECOM car park.
Giddings acknowledged that he removed the server to his vehicle on March 5, 2020 and that it remained there for about two and a half hours. He also accepted that he later spent approximately four hours alone with the SOPs and former GECOM official Paul Persaud after former Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers had instructed persons to leave.
Hughes suggested that Giddings deliberately placed the server in his vehicle so the two men in the car park could access it, before going to the muster point to create what the lawyer described as “plausible deniability.”
Giddings repeatedly denied the allegation.
Hughes also questioned Giddings about video footage showing him leaving his vehicle and speaking with the two men. Giddings said he did not know their identities and could not recall what he discussed with them.
The lawyer then pointed to footage showing one of the men approaching Giddings’ vehicle after he returned to it and handing him something through the window.
Giddings acknowledged that he lowered the window and received something but said he could not recall what the man handed him.
Hughes suggested that the item could have been a flash drive or another computer-related device containing manipulated election data. Giddings denied the allegation.
The defence also pressed Giddings on why he had not attempted to obtain additional security footage from GECOM or the police after the previous cross-examination, despite knowing that serious allegations had been made against him.
Giddings said he was not aware he could have done so.
Hughes then turned to Giddings’ four-hour period with the SOPs and repeatedly asked him to identify any law, employment provision or GECOM instruction authorising him to remain alone with the election documents.
Giddings acknowledged that he could not point to a specific Standard Operating Procedure permitting him to remain alone with the SOPs in the tabulation room in the absence of party representatives and observers.
Hughes also established that Giddings was not a GECOM official and had no statutory role, before putting to him that the Constitution did not give him authority to remain alone with the SOPs.
Giddings maintained that his authority came from his position as IT manager and responsibility for the documents.
At the end of the cross-examination, Hughes put to Giddings that, based on the evidence discussed, he had been “integrally involved in the breaking of the elections in 2020.” “I deny it,” Giddings responded.
