PSC demands immediate suspension of Lowenfield

…calls for full, independent probe into CEO’s conduct

The Private Sector Commission (PSC), an accredited observer in the March 2 General and Regional Elections, has come out swinging against what it calls Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield’s blatant attempt to manipulate the election results to favour A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC).

Lowenfield presented a final report to Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh that unceremoniously dumped over 115,000 votes when a 34-day national recount had certified those votes as valid. This is not the first time Lowenfield has been complicit in fraudulent results being presented for a declaration.
On Wednesday, the PSC said it has become increasingly concerned at the biased and unlawful actions of Lowenfield, serving as Chief Elections Officer, from the time he readily embraced the fraudulent tabulation submitted by Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo of the District Four results and incorporated them into the report delivered to the Chairman of the Commission.

Shocked
The PSC expressed shock at Lowenfield’s latest attempts to disenfranchise voters en masse. According to the Commission, his actions are no less than insubordination against GECOM’s Chair, Justice Singh and should be treated accordingly. The PSC urged GECOM to take measures against Lowenfield, including immediate suspension.

“The Private Sector Commission condemns in the strongest possible terms this most recent act of Mr Lowenfield, which we believe to be tantamount to criminal malfeasance. The Private Sector Commission urges upon GECOM, immediate action to suspend the Chief Elections Officer from any further participation in the election process until such time as a full and independent investigation can be held into his conduct,” the PSC stated.
According to the PSC it is appalled at the effrontery shown to the GECOM Chairperson by Lowenfield in the presentation of this report, adding that it was aghast at the table attached to his letter in which he claims to show what he describes as “the valid and credible votes cast in accordance with Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act”.

The Private Sector organisation calls for Lowenfield to be investigated following on the heels of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) urging a political audit of GECOM, focusing on both the Commission and its administrative arm which Lowenfield heads. According to Caricom, representatives of which oversaw the national recount, GECOM has betrayed its obligations to remain impartial and independent.

Presumption
According to the PSC, what Lowenfield did was presume to act on a decision from the Court of Appeal, a decision that was in fact not made. It pointed out that nothing in the Court of Appeal ruling had stopped Lowenfield from submitting a final report reflecting the 460,352 votes that a national recount had certified were valid.
APNU/AFC supporter Eslyn David had asked the court to order that GECOM had not tabulated valid votes in the recount. David had also asked for an order restricting Lowenfield from submitting a report based on the recount figures. The court had refused to grant both orders.
Instead of carrying out the request of the GECOM Chairperson made in her letter of June 16, 2020 to him, use “the results of the Recount for the consideration of the Commission”, in his report, Lowenfield attached a table in which he arbitrarily and unilaterally seeks to disenfranchise some 115,844 or 25 per cent of the persons who legitimately cast their votes in a completely valid process on Election Day.
The PSC pointed out that Lowenfield also purported “to assign the allocation of seats to the contesting parties on the basis of votes cast which bear no relationship whatsoever to the matrices produced from the Statements of Recount (SoRs) or the Certificate of valid votes tabulated at the Recount.”
The Private Sector body noted that it expected GECOM to adhere to the CCJ injunction preventing it from making a declaration until the case is heard and orders issued. Once this is done, the PSC said it also expected GECOM to use the results produced from the matrices in the SoRs to declare Dr Irfaan Ali as President of Guyana, since these votes were deemed valid.

Disenfranchisement
Lowenfield’s attempt to alter the results of the recount and deny the will of the people comes on the heels of previous attempts he made to give legitimacy to the fraudulent declarations of Mingo.
Mingo, during the tabulation of votes following the March 2 elections, used figures which were heavily inflated in favour of the APNU/AFC coalition – vastly differing from the official numbers recorded on the Statements of Poll (SoPs).
On March 5, Mingo declared fraudulent results for District Four, prompting the PPP/C to move to the courts, which scrapped those results and ordered that the process be done through the legally-prescribed procedure. When the process was resumed, Mingo still proceeded to use concocted numbers, and he eventually made a second fraudulent declaration on March 13.
Mingo had declared that the APNU/AFC won 136,057 votes for District Four while the PPP/C won 77,231. But the certified recount process clearly shows that for Region Four, the APNU/AFC won 116,941 votes while the PPP/C won 80,920 votes.