Lowenfield’s election report to GECOM Chair confirms PPP/C ’s victory

… illegally inserts opinion on “credibility and fairness” of process

Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield has submitted to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair his report on the recently concluded National Elections Recount of the ballots cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections.

Lowenfield made the submission to retired Justice Claudette Singh just after midday on Saturday, and the report was circulated to the six GECOM Commissioners.
Justice Singh will now have to call a meeting of the Commission to deliberate on the contents of the report before Lowenfield is invited to present the final report from which a declaration would be made on or before June 16, as gazetted in the amended Recount Order.

The Recount Order, which is the legal mandate of the recount, states that the CEO’s main function is to summarise the Observation Reports with all the alleged anomalies and submit that summary to the 7-member Commission for deliberation.
Section 12 of the Order states that: “The matrices for the recount of the ten (10) Electoral Districts shall then be tabulated by the Chief Election Officer and shall be submitted in a report, together with a summary of the observation reports for each District, to the Commission.”

Illegal opinion
However, Lowenfield strayed from that mandate, the PPP said on Saturday.Instead of presenting a tabulation of the votes garnered during the recount exercise and a summary of the observation reports, Lowenfield illegally proffered his opinions and stated that he is of the belief that the election process may have lacked credibility and fairness.

In fact, in his summation of the observations for each of the 10 Electoral Districts, Lowenfield wrote: “Finally, the summation of anomalies and instances of voter impersonation (insert Electoral District) does not appear to satisfy the criteria of impartiality, fairness, and compliance with provisions of the Constitution and the ROPA (Rights of the People Act) Cap 1:03. Consequently, on the basis counted and the information furnished from the recount, it cannot be ascertained that the results (insert Electoral District) meet the standard of fair and credible elections.” Lowenfield declares categorically about ‘anomalies’ when these are mere allegations by APNU/AFC agents

The CEO, who had no qualms about submitting and accepting the fraudulent declaration from District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, came to the conclusion following a series of alleged anomalies raised by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC).
Lowenfield seemingly agreed with the incumbent and their unsubstantiated allegations. After the recount started, the APNU/AFC went on a fishing expedition and started to randomly point out serial numbers from the Official List of Electors, and either claimed that those persons are dead or have migrated. Those were recorded in the Observation Report which Lowenfield was supposed to summarise and present to the Commission.
Throughout the process, persons have been begging the Coalition to provide some shred of evidence to substantiate claims made, but the coalition has failed to do so.
APNU/AFC General Secretary Joseph Harmon had presented to the GECOM Chair two lists of names of persons he claims have migrated and were not present in Guyana on March 2. Justice Singh, acting as investigator, had forwarded those names to the Police Commissioner, who is also the Chief Immigration Officer, for investigation; and he had responded with names he claims were out of the jurisdiction.
What followed can only be described as total dishonesty on APNU/AFC’s part, since many persons on the list came forward to show that they were in fact in the jurisdiction.
Nevertheless, persons have been coming forward to state where they had voted, debunking the information provided by Police Commissioner Leslie James.
In his report, Lowenfield said he had verified the anomalies for each of the Electoral Districts with the Chief Immigration Officer and the General Registrar’s Office.
“In respect of the allegations of voter impersonation, responses from the Chief Immigration Officer and review of the General Registrar’s Office Deceased Reports confirmed that these were of substance,” the CEO told the Commission without actually providing the evidence.

PPP/C victory
Despite casting doubt on the process, Lowenfield presented the figures garnered in the recount process for the Commission to consider.
According to Lowenfield’s figures, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won the March 2 General Election with 233,336 votes cast in its favour. The APNU/AFC secured 217,920 votes.
For the new parties, the numbers are as follows: A New and United Guyana – 2,313; Change Guyana -1,953; Liberty and Justice Party – 2,657; People’s Republic Party – 889; The Citizen’s Initiative – 680; The New Movement – 244; and the United Republican Party – 360.
In the Regional Elections, the PPP/C also won with 233,661 votes, while APNU/AFC secured 217,055 votes. Change Guyana -2,607; Fed-Up Party – 153, Liberty and Justice Party -2,935; Organisation for the Victory of the People – 448; People’s Republic Party – 927; and the United Republican Party – 1,369.
According to the numbers, the PPP/C is to ascend to the seat of power, while the incumbent will be booted out.
The CARICOM High Level Team which observed the recount is yet to submit its report.