Elections rigging fiasco: GECOM finally fires Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo

– dismissals take effect on August 18

Following several delays and legal proceedings, embattled Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, his deputy Roxanne Myers, and Returning Officer for Region Four, Clairmont Mingo, were on Thursday dismissed from their respective posts at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) following a vote by the seven-member Commission.
The Elections Commission met virtually to finally vote on the three motions tabled by Government-Nominated Commissioners for the dismissals of the trio, who are currently before the courts facing electoral fraud charges.
The motions were previously debated by the Commission, but, at the last meeting held virtually on Tuesday, Opposition Commissioners Vincent Alexander and Desmond Trotman logged out before the motions could be dealt with, leaving the meeting without A quorum.
The APNU/AFC-nominated GECOM Commissioners had similarly walked out of another meeting of the commission on July 20, when they had met to deliberate on the motion to dismiss the GECOM trio.
Nevertheless, the matter was deferred for Thursday, and during that meeting, which was also virtual and lasted for approximately 30 minutes, the three Opposition-nominated Commissioners abstained from voting on all three motions, while the three Government Commissioners voted in favour of the trio’s termination.

Terms of termination
In a statement announcing the terminations, which she said came after weeks of deliberation on the motions, GECOM Chair, Justice Claudette Singh, indicated that the services of Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo will be terminated effective August 18, 2021, and they would be compensated in accordance with provisions in their contracts.

She noted that although these three election officers hold public/statutory office, they are not public officers, but are contractual officers; hence they have no security of tenure, and their respective contracts stipulate the terms by which they are bound.
To this end, Justice Singh disclosed that CEO Lowenfield was dismissed via Clause 9 of his contract, which stipulates that his services can be terminated by giving him three months’ notice, or payment in lieu thereof.
Regarding the DCEO and the RO, their contracts similarly state that the Commission may, at any time, terminate their employment by giving them three months’ notice or payment in lieu thereof.
On this note, the GECOM Chair revealed that the three election officers will be paid three months’ salary in lieu of the three months’ notice, and their benefits would include all allowances under their respective contracts as well as payments for the remaining days of vacation leave, if any.
According to Justice (retired) Singh, the trio, having signed their respective contracts, were aware of the method of termination provided for. She further outlined that not even a court of law can enforce a contract for personal services against an employer terminating the contract of an employee, since the proper relief for a breach in an employment contract for personal services lies in damages.

Waited too long
Nevertheless, speaking with reporters shortly after Thursday’s meeting, Government Commissioner Sase Gunraj posited that this country waited too long for this development.
“This nation has perhaps waited too long for this to happen, but it is finally here,” he stated.
Gunraj, who was anticipating a finality to this matter at Thursday’s meeting, noted that GECOM will now have to get these three positions filled. This, he reassured, will be done through the proper procedures.
However, the Government-nominated Commissioner was quick to assert that his solitary requirement for the new appointees would be for them to conduct themselves with dignity and in an ethical manner, regardless of their political view. This, he said, is not only in keeping with the law, but also the oath they are required to take when entering office.
“Everyone is entitled to a political view… But that should not affect the manner in which you conduct yourself and execute the functions of your office, as you are sworn to do. So, for me, it doesn’t matter who fills those positions; what matters is the persons executing their duties in an impartial manner, in a fair manner, and in keeping with the terms of their contract,” Commissioner Gunraj contended.
Meanwhile, he told reporters that there was no immediate indication of any challenges to GECOM’s decision to dismiss the embattled trio.
Gunraj and his fellow Government-nominated Commissioners Bibi Shadick and Manoj Narayan, on June 1, 2021 had brought motions calling for the dismissal of Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo from GECOM.
The trio are before the courts for a number of electoral charges for their alleged attempts to sway the results of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections in favour of the then ruling A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government.
On June 22, 2021, GECOM had unanimously decided to send the trio on leave pending the outcome of the motions.
In regard to CEO Lowenfield, the motion filed by Gunraj detailed that in spite of protests from contesting parties other than the APNU/AFC, he deliberately chose to neglect the complaints of discrepancies in relation to Mingo’s numbers.
In the case of Myers, that motion was submitted in the names of Shadick and Narayan. They argued that she aided Lowenfield in the commission of all his infractions, and even went out of her way to facilitate a meeting in a GECOM facility by then Foreign Affairs Minister Karen Cummings, where she threatened to revoke the accreditation of international observers.
Myers’s purported order to have the Guyana Police Force remove Commissioner Gunraj and political party representatives from the GECOM Command Centre during the tabulation of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) is also listed as one of the reasons she should be dismissed from her substantive post as DCEO.
Meanwhile, the grounds for Mingo’s dismissal surround his tabulation of the SoPs, in which he manufactured numbers to reflect a win for the APNU/AFC. It also concerns his conduct and defiance of the court orders mandating that he follow the outlined statutory process to acquire his final tally of the SoPs.
However, Lowenfield had countered the motions with a court case seeking to block Gunraj and Shadick from voting on the motion. He has since withdrawn the legal proceedings.