Dear Editor,
Keith Lowenfield on July 13 received a fourth request to submit the “fit and proper” report for the March 2 elections. The CCJ made it clear that the recount results represent the true results of the elections. In any other country, Lowenfield would be fired and even charged with malfeasance in public office. He has now deliberately refused to submit the proper report, even after written instructions to do so three times. When GECOM meets on July 14, it would have been the Chair’s and the Commission’s 4th try to get him to properly prepare the report of the March 2 elections. His insubordination has been more than insulting, it is total madness, mockery and eye-pass. It is also criminal.
The patience of the Chair of the Commission is remarkable. While patience is a virtue, in this case, patience is now suffocating Guyana. Having been given three chances to produce the proper report, having been told by the CCJ that he must carry out the instructions of the Commission and submit a report based on the recount results, Lowenfield is insulting the Chair and the Commission, but, worse, is holding a whole country hostage. At the same time, he is thumbing his nose to the entire international community. Lowenfield clearly does not care what anyone says. He is loyal to his leaders, the persons who control the rigging cabal. What is needed now is not patience, but an urgency to stop the arrogance and the openly criminal attempt to thief the elections. What is needed now is for GECOM to use the recount results, as agreed by all, to declare the winner of the elections. GECOM’s continued patience with a rogue official is no longer a virtue, but an abrogation of its responsibility.
Every political party, other than APNU/AFC, has urged GECOM to declare the true results of the elections and allow Guyana to breathe again. Civil society has done the same. The only ones in Guyana are David Granger and his sycophants. They have lied to their supporters, yet they have never shown their loyal supporters their copies of the Statements of Poll. They have told their supporters they have evidence of dead people who voted, but they have shown them not an iota of evidence. They have said people who were not present in Guyana voted, but have not shown any evidence. This is cruel, fooling your own supporters, getting them to risk their lives in this COVID-19 environment as they come out without social distancing and without masks to protest.
The whole international community has come out and demanded the election results be honoured. Caricom, OAS, the Commonwealth, the ABCE countries, academicians from around the world, observer groups such as the Carter Center, have spoken out. They were here for the elections – they saw that E-Day was free and fair. But they also saw the disgraceful attempt to thief the elections, in plain sight. Granger’s APNU/AFC’s response is to tell our international partners to “get lost”, to “butt out” of our internal affairs, to “stop the interference”. One of them, Raphael Trotman, insulted Caricom, denouncing them as “sparsely” populated places that want to tell Guyana what to do. A man who cannot get a few hundred votes on his own wants to denigrate a whole region. But Trotman also stupidly claimed that Lowenfield’s report must be accepted by GECOM, even if the report is fraudulent, insisting that Lowenfield has no legal obligation to adhere to any instruction from GECOM. He now assigns to Lowenfield absolute power to decide which vote he will accept and which he will not accept. This is ludicrous and criminal.
In the meanwhile, Guyana is at a standstill. The economy, already stagnant before the elections, is now in a freefall. Corruption, already rampant before the elections, is now reaching the abyss of shame. Crime is damaging Guyana, as the Government is more focused on thieving the elections. The country’s debt is spiralling out of control. COVID-19 is killing our people. Thousands are jobless and families are on the verge of starvation.
This madness is now out of control. The time for GECOM to take control and do its work is now long past. Lowenfield has received his 4th set of instructions to submit the report which he failed to deliver three times before. Worse, he submitted two other reports when not asked for them and both were openly and flagrantly committing fraud. Thus, he has failed five times before and now has his sixth chance. For a Commission that spent more taxpayers’ money than any other single entity in the country, more than $10 billion for the March 2 elections and the subsequent recount, one with the highest-paid staff in the country, one in which the Commissioners are the highest-paid Board members in the country, to simply meet every day, just to reschedule a meeting for the next day, is unbearable. GECOM is abrogating its responsibility.
The rigging cabal led by David Granger must not be allowed to flourish. The way to end this is to start with showing Lowenfield who is the boss. The way forward is to show Lowenfield the “dog wags the tail”. Justice Claudette Singh has resisted firmly the enormous pressure that APNU/AFC has mounted against her. But the time has come to declare the PPP the winner and to swear in Dr Irfaan Ali as Guyana’s 9th President.
Sincerely,
Dr Leslie Ramsammy
