FITUG rubbishes Lowenfield’s report, calls for it to be “dumped”

Disenfranchising 115,000 voters

Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield is facing major backlash from a major trade union umbrella organisation, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), which noted that his most recent report needed to be dumped.

FITUG communicated its opinion on the ongoing Election 2020 saga through a missive on Wednesday, in which its strongly criticised the CEO for disregarding over 115,000 voters in his latest report.
Furthermore, the trade union questioned the swiftness with which Lowenfield presented his second report to Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh following the Court of Appeal’s ruling to utilise valid votes for the election declaration on Monday.
“His actions have only further cemented the strongly-held view regarding the partiality of the Secretariat of the Elections Commission,” FITUG expressed.
The trade union body went on to share its disdain at the disenfranchisement of thousands of Guyanese voters, stating: “in as much as we recognise that Mr Lowenfield’s report cannot be considered pending hearings at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), we contend that his report should be rejected outright. His report, we believe, belongs at the Haags Bosch dumpsite along with his previous attempt to disenfranchise some 275,000 voters as well as the two declarations made by Mr Clairmont Mingo”.
This is not Lowenfield’s first attempt to alter the results of the elections.
In his previous report submitted to the Commission, Lowenfield claimed that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) won 125,010 votes while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won 56,627 votes – disenfranchising some 60 per cent of the electorate on mere allegations that their votes were “invalid”.
But now, Lowenfield’s new report validates votes he previously invalidated; the CEO now claims that the APNU/AFC coalition garnered 171,825 votes while the PPP/C gained 166,343 votes.
According to FITUG, which noted that it has grown upset, the ongoing shenanigans are seemingly at the “behest of the incumbent Administration to perpetuate its grip on power”.
Explaining that the results of the valid vote count which emanated out of the national recount were already known, FITUG questioned “where the self-righteous coalition is really intent on taking us.”
The organisation surmised: “It is really to take our country down the road of undemocratic rule once again? This, if so, is most saddening and the fact that these attempts are supported by individuals who were once part of the bulwark of the struggles for democracy is most disturbing.”
FITUG highlighted that “as the days go by, the masks are falling off and the truth is being revealed”.
Lowenfield’s second attempt to thwart the will of the Guyanese people comes on the heels of two previous attempts made by Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo – which were both supported by the CEO.
Mingo, during the tabulation of votes following the March 2 elections, used figures which were heavily inflated in favour of the APNU/AFC coalition – vastly differing from the official numbers recorded on the Statements of Poll (SoPs).
On March 5, Mingo declared fraudulent results for District Four, prompting the PPP/C to move to the courts which scrapped those results and ordered that the process be done through the legally prescribed procedure.
When the process was resumed, Mingo still proceeded to use concocted numbers, and he eventually made a second fraudulent declaration on March 13.
Mingo had declared that the APNU/AFC won 136,057 votes for District Four while the PPP/C won 77,231.
But the certified recount process clearly shows that for Region Four, the APNU/AFC won 116,941 votes while the PPP/C won 80,920.
Mingo’s attempts to alter the results of the elections were, in both instances, supported by Lowenfield.