GECOM Chair never advised CEO not to submit report

…elections report ready – GECOM Secretariat

The Elections Secretariat at GECOM has confirmed that the Chief Elections Officer’s final election report is completed.
CEO Keith Lowenfield was expected to submit his report to the GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Justice Claudette Singh since Thursday, June 18, 2020, at 13:00h. However, this was not done.

Initially, GECOM’s spokesperson Yolanda Ward indicated to the media that the CEO was served with the Notice of Motion – filed by APNU/AFC supporter Eslyn David, who is seeking to block GECOM from making a declaration of the March 2 elections results – prior to his 13:00h deadline, hence it was not submitted.
“The Notice restraints the CEO from ‘complying with the directions of Chairperson’ and as a consequence, a report was not submitted,” Ward had told reporters on Thursday.

However, a statement from the Secretariat on Saturday was titled “Chief Election Officer did not submit report based on the advice of the Chairperson”. The missive, which came four days after the fact, sought to justify why the CEO did not submit his report as scheduled – something which he has come under criticism for especially since there was no order or injunction granted to stop GECOM from meeting.
It was noted that while the report was ready for submission to the Commission, Lowenfield was served with the Notice of Motion before the highly-anticipated GECOM meeting. As such, the missive detailed that he went to the GECOM Chair.
“It was then that Justice Singh indicated that she was also served with the said document and explained that “as a former officer of the court” she could not disregard the “Notice of Motion”. As a consequence, the CEO’s report was not submitted to the Chairperson at that time,” the CEO’s office said on Saturday.
Attempts by this newspaper to contact the GECOM Chair on Saturday to confirm the Secretariat’s statement were futile.

Never advised CEO
However, according to an interview with local online news entity, Guyana Standard, Justice Singh said when Lowenfield went to her office with his Notice of Motion, after reviewing the document, she informed him that it was not granted but is merely an application to the court to restrain him from presenting the report.
At the same, the GECOM Chair, who is a retired Judge, said she was also served with the Motion and also noticed it was not granted and so she contacted the Court of Appeal to enquire about the date when she was informed that the hearing was set for the following day.
According to the article, Justice Singh related that she then told the CEO that as a former Judge she would not demand or ask him to submit the report since she did not want to trample on his constitutional right.
However, the GECOM Chair said she did ask Lowenfield to take the report to the seven-member Commission, which was expected to meet at 14:00h on Thursday. She said the CEO agreed but never showed up. Justice Singh noted that she has a witness to attest to these events, telling the Guyana Standard that she is on the side of the law which will see her through.
The submission of the report would have paved the way for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to be declared the winner of the March 2 elections and Dr Irfaan Ali to be sworn in as Guyana’s ninth Executive President.
The National Recount showed that the PPP/C secured 15,416 votes more than its main political rival, the caretaker APNU/AFC coalition.
The Court of Appeal is expected to rule on the Notice of the Motion on Monday.
In her submissions to the court, the GECOM Chair via her lawyer, Attorney-at-Law Kim Kyte, asked the Court of Appeal to dismiss the Motion since it is misconceived. She argued that such a matter is for the High Court to determine and that the Appeal Court can only interpret the Constitution and not the recount order, which it is being asked to do.