Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield is expected to go on trial in November on three private criminal charges filed against him in relation to his conduct in the March 02, General and Regional Elections.
He was slapped with three private criminal charges regarding conspiracy to commit fraud, breach of trust in public office, and misconduct in public office.
The CEO made another court appearance today at the Georgetown Magistrates Court where it was expected that lawyers’ representing the applicants submit statements of witnesses. But Lowenfield’s lawyer, Neil Boston told reporters that the attorneys were unable to do so and requested more time.
The matter was adjourned to October 23 for full disclosure.
Lowenfield first appeared in court on July 24 where he was granted $450,000 bail; $150,000 bail on each of the three charges.
The charges were filed by Josh Kanhai and Desmond Morian, private citizens.
According to Boston, 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.
Meanwhile, as it relates to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack taking over the charges, Boston says no decision has been made.
One of Lowenfield’s lawyers, Nigel Hughes, had written to the DPP to review the charges in a bid to have them dismissed.
A decision was supposed to be handed down last month but the DPP was a no-show in court.
“She’s saying that she’s looking at the statements and then she’ll make a decision,” Boston said.
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 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.
The national recount exercise shows that the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes.
But Lowenfield had repeatedly refused to submit his final elections report with those figures despite being so directed by the GECOM Chair.
