MAGISTRATE Faith McGusty, who sits at the Georgetown Magistrates Court, on Friday morning issued a summons for Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield to attend court and answer to the three charges filed against him for alleged fraud and misconduct, based on his Elections Report submitted on June 23.
Initially, two private charges were filed by General Secretary of The New Movement (TNM) Daniel Josh Kanhai and People Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) member Desmond Morian. But on Friday, another private charge against Lowenfield was filed by Morian. On Friday, all parties involved were present in court, except Lowenfield. This was due to the fact that Lowenfield was never served in person with any of the charges or necessary documents.
Attorney-at-law Glen Hanoman, who will be prosecuting the case, indicated that he had tried several times to serve the necessary documents on Lowenfield at his Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) office and also at his private residence.
These attempts, he stressed, were futile, since the security personnel attached to Lowenfield and GECOM did not cooperate in allowing the summonses to be served.
Hanoman then asked the magistrate for a summons to be issued for Lowenfield to attend court and plea to the charges.
The charges were first sworn to in court by the informants in the case of Kanhai and Morian. The Magistrate then issued a summons for Lowenfield and adjourned the case until July 24. Speaking outside of the court, Hanoman explained that one of the charges against Lowenfield attracts a penalty of life imprisonment, since it is also an indictable charge.
He also claimed that more charges are expected to be laid against other key personnel at GECOM. On June 30, the first set of charges was filed by Kanhai and Morian.
Kanhai is alleging that Lowenfield, between March 5 and June 23, 2020, at Georgetown, in the Georgetown Magisterial District, County of Demerara, State of Guyana conspired with person(s) unknown to commit the common law offence of fraud, to wit, by representing to the Guyana Elections Commission, that tables attached to his Election Report dated June 23, 2020 accurately reflected the true results of the said election, in order to materially alter the results of the said election with intent to defraud, knowing the said tabulation to be false.
Morian is also alleging that Lowenfield, between March 5, 2020 and June 29, 2020, while performing his duty as the Chief Elections Officer of GECOM, without lawful excuse or justification, willfully misconducted himself at Georgetown, a county of Demerara, State of Guyana, a place within the Georgetown Magisterial District by ascertaining results of the 2nd March, 2020, General and Regional Elections for Guyana, knowing the said results to be false, the said willfull misconduct amounting to a breach of the public’s trust in the Office of the Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission.
The second charge which was filed by Morian on Friday against Lowenfield claiming that he allegedly conspired with Region Four District Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo to alter results that had been declared in March for that district.
On Tuesday, June 23,2020, Lowenfield, while utilising valid votes as ordered by the Court of Appeal, had submitted his Election Report, which reflected a total of 344,508 valid votes being cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections. The Report came months after delays brought about by several court cases and a National Recount.
Lowenfield in his report, noted that in coming to the numbers he took guidance of the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the “Eslyn David v Chief Elections Officer”, whereby it was ordered that the words “more votes are cast” be interpreted to mean “more valid votes are cast” in relation to the General and Regional Elections. According to the CEO’s Report, of the 344, 508 valid votes the APNU+AFC secured 171,825 valid votes, while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) raked in 166, 343 valid votes.
This was in contrast to the National Recount Report Lowenfield had submitted to the Elections Commission on June 13, whereby the Statements of Recount (SORs), showed that the PPP/C secured 233,336 votes, while APNU+AFC raked in 217,920 votes. However, in the Elections Report the CEO was keen on pointing out to the Elections Commission that thousands of votes were compromised as a result of widespread irregularities, and alleged cases of electoral fraud. The declarations of the elections have since been stayed by the Caribbean Court of Justice pending its decision on July 8 ,2020 , on the ground whether or not the Court of Appeal had jurisdiction to interpret Article 177 (2) (b) of the Constitution to mean “more valid votes are cast”. The appeal was filed by People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo and its Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali.
