THE People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), on Tuesday, filed private criminal charges against Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, for alleged fraud, based on his Elections Report submitted on June 23.

Filed by General Secretary of The New Movement (TNM), Daniel Josh Kanhai, and PPP/C activist the charge accuses Lowenfield of committing “Conspiracy to Commit a Felony contrary to Section 34 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act”. Particulars of the alleged offence states that “the accused between the 5th day of March and 23rd day of June 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 23rd June 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”.

Utilising valid votes, as ordered by the Court of Appeal, Lowenfield, last week Tuesday, 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 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.