Lowenfield finally served, to face 3 fraud charges today

Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield is expected to make a court appearance today at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts to answer to three private criminal charges filed against him for conspiring to commit fraud and for breach of public trust.

After dodging court marshals for weeks, Lowenfield was finally served on Thursday “after careful planning and strategy”.
This is according to Josh Kanhai and Desmond Morian, the private citizens who filed the charges against him. “Mr Lowenfield has been evading the summons, but fortunately, after careful planning and strategy, he was served at GECOM Secretariat’s Office,” the duo said in a statement to the media.
Kanhai, a member of The New Movement (TNM) party, filed a charge claiming that Lowenfield between March 5 and June 23, 2020 conspired with person(s) unknown to commit the common law offence of fraud when he submitted his Election Report dated June 23 which included figures that altered the results of the elections.

Meanwhile, Morian is contending that Lowenfield, while performing his duties as CEO of GECOM, ascertained the results of the March 2 elections “knowing the said results to be false”, the said wilful misconduct amounting to a breach of the public’s trust in the office of the CEO.
When those two charges came up for hearing before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on July 3, Lowenfield was a no-show. Attorney Glenn Hanoman, who is representing Kanhai and Morian, had told reporters that the CEO had been dodging service of the two private criminal charges.
The Court, as a result, issued a summons for Lowenfield to appear in court on July 24.
Following that court session, Morian filed another private criminal charge, contending that Lowenfield conspired with person or persons unknown to use Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo’s fraudulent figures to prepare a report that was submitted to GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, back in March.

According to a national recount of the ballots, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won the March 2, polls with 233,336 votes cast in its favour. A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) secured 217,920 votes while the smaller parties secured as follows – A New and United Guyana – 2313; Change Guyana — 1953; Liberty and Justice Party – 2657; People’s Republic Party – 889; The Citizens’ Initiative – 680; The New Movement – 244; and the United Republican Party – 360.
But Lowenfield, on numerous occasions, presented final election reports with concocted figures reflecting a false victory for the APNU/AFC.
This is despite the GECOM Chair instructing him to prepare and present his report using the certified figures from the national recount – a process that was birthed out of an agreement by caretaker President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo – which was scrutinised by a Caricom High-Level Team.
The latest fraudulent report was submitted by Lowenfield on July 11 and included inflated numbers generated by embattled Returning Officer Mingo.
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – Guyana’s apex court – has endorsed the recount and stated that those figures should be the basis on which the election results are declared.