THE motion tabled by the Government-nominated commissioners for the immediate removal of GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield; Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers and Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, is a step in the right direction in light of plans to host Local Government Elections this year.
During the period March to August 2020, Guyana, sister Caricom nations and nations further afield witnessed one of the most brazen attempts yet in the modern-day world to rig a national election. Thankfully, the brutal assault on democracy failed to bend the will of the people, and eventually buckled to mounting international pressure led by the US, Britain and Canada.
During those dark days, many independent personalities and stakeholder groups also played a key role in ensuring that an illegitimate government does not occupy the seat of power again.
When the drivers of the attempted elections heist realised the towering mountain before them and quitted their evil scheme, calls mounted from various quarters here and abroad for the enablers at GECOM to face the law for their despicable actions and to be removed from the elections body.
Lowenfield has since been charged with three counts of Misconduct in Public Office and three counts of Forgery, while Mingo has been charged with four counts of Misconduct in Public Office. Myers is also facing two counts of Misconduct in Public Office.

Many persons then, including stakeholder groups, had also suggested that given the gravity of the charge and the compelling evidence against the GECOM trio, GECOM Chair, Justice (r’td), Claudette Singh should have taken steps to ensure their removal from the elections body.
However, the GECOM Chair, in December last year, had told the Guyana Chronicle that such decision lies with the entire commission and not just her, while pointing out that the commission cannot act hastily and that the law must run its course.
It should be noted that at the time the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) had filed two election petitions seeking to overturn the legitimate declaration by GECOM that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won the March 2020 elections.
Those two petitions by the Coalition, which were widely viewed as having nothing more than nuisance value, have since been thrown out by the court. The recent move by the government’s nominated commissioners against the GECOM trio is the first time the matter has been formally put before the commission. Back in December last year, the GECOM Chair had pointed out that the issue would require serious deliberations and discussions and had noted that “wherever the axe falls, we will have to work with it.”

The matter is now before the commission and many Guyanese at home and in the diaspora, as well as the many others who followed the action by the three named elements and others at GECOM during the 2020 elections, will be eagerly looking forward to the pronouncements flowing from the deliberations of the commission.
While Guyanese await the pronouncements from the commission, it would be worthy of mentioning that days before the motion was filed by the Government-nominated commissioners seeking the immediate dismissal of Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers, Lowenfield, through his attorney, had attempted to block the release of the Statements of Poll and the Statements of Recount from being handed over to the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions, but his efforts failed.
The Statements of Poll and the Statements of Recount contain the authentic number of persons who voted in the March 2 elections and, when added region by region would give an accurate count of the total number of persons who voted in those elections.
Guyanese will recall that the vote count was going well until it came down to Region Four. During the count of votes for Region Four, there were several stoppages including Returning Officer,

Clairmont Mingo becoming ‘sick’ before recovering to read numbers from spreadsheets; first at the Ashmins Building and then at GECOM, which were widely denounced as fictitious by local stakeholders and the international community.
This development followed a series of court actions and defiance by Lowenfield, who finally, after five months, presented a report that contained a verified count of votes cast in the March 2, 2020 elections. He had previously presented before the commission several reports that contained numbers that were heavily criticised as fraudulent.
The actions by some of the actors at GECOM, aside from the clarion call for their dismissal and prosecution, also point to the need for reform at GECOM to ensure greater transparency and accountability by senior officers of its secretariat as recommended by several international organisations which observed the elections, notably the European Union and CARICOM.
Undoubtedly, this is necessary since the unsavoury actions by these elements have done significant damage to the image and credibility of the elections body, and importantly too, they should not be administering its affairs as the country heads into Local Government Elections.
The saving of democracy in 2020 was a clear and resounding message that elections-rigging will never be tolerated in Guyana again.