Lowenfield slapped with 6 new charges of forgery, misconduct

Attempts to rig elections

…currently on 140 days’ leave

Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield was on Monday slapped with six new charges relating to forgery and misconduct in public office, as allegations continue to mount regarding his role in attempting to rig the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Lowenfield was summoned to the Criminal Investigations Department Headquarters (CID) on Monday morning for questioning as the Guyana Police Force continued their probe into allegations of electoral fraud. He was then arrested and escorted to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts where he was arraigned on six charges.
Represented by Senior Counsel Neil Boston and Attorney Nigel Hughes, the embattled Chief Elections Officer was charged with three counts of forgery and three counts of misconduct in public office. He was placed on $50,000 for each charge, amounting to $300,000. The matter will continue on October 23.
Speaking with the media after the case was adjourned, Attorney Hughes contended that the disclosure of statements will be made at the next hearing. He claimed that the charges create a window for the Guyana Elections Commission to suspend or remove both Lowenfield and the Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers. Myers was slapped with two counts of misconduct in public office last Friday and joins a list of other officers who are under investigation.
Lowenfield is expected to go on trial in November for the three private criminal charges filed against him, regarding conspiracy to commit fraud, breach of trust in public office, and misconduct in public office, filed by private citizens Josh Kanhai and Desmond Morian.
He first appeared in court on July 24 where he was granted $450,000 bail – $150,000 bail on each of the three charges. The CEO had made another appearance last Friday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, where the matter was adjourned to October 23 for further disclosure.
The trial in relation to Morian vs Lowenfield will begin on November 13 while the trial in relation to Kanhai vs Lowenfield will begin on November 20.
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.
Morian subsequently filed a third charge contending that Lowenfield conspired with person/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.
A few weeks back, Lowenfield was arrested and the allegations of electoral fraud were put to him, but he exercised his right to remain silent. He was eventually released on $100,000 bail and had to report to the CID Headquarters.
The CEO is being accused of attempting to undermine the will of the people by repeatedly refusing to submit the verified results from the National Recount to Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice Claudette Singh, for a final declaration.
Lowenfield’s report claimed that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition garnered 171,825 votes while the PPP/C gained 166,343 votes.
How the CEO arrived at those figures is unknown, since the certified results from the legally conducted recount exercise supervised by GECOM and a high-level team from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) pellucidly showed that the PPP/C won with 233,336 votes while the APNU/AFC garnered 217,920.
The recount exercise also proved that District Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo heavily inflated the figures in Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting District – in favour of the then caretaker coalition regime. Mingo is also facing private criminal charges filed by People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s election agent, Charles Ramson Jr, back in March for forging official electoral documents in an effort to defraud the country.
Meanwhile, Guyana Times was told that Lowenfield is currently on 140 days’ accumulated annual leave. (G12)