— Min. Indar, Gunraj

VINCENT Alexander, one of the three Opposition-aligned Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), has been quoted by a reputable online news agency as saying that the move to remove three senior officers of the agency is “racially motivated”.
According to Demerara Waves Online News, Alexander does not believe that the intended dismissals are associated with the infamous six-month long period that it took GECOM to declare the results for the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Currently, Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, along with Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Clairmont Mingo, are facing multiple charges relating to electoral fraud and misconduct in public office.The three are accused of conspiring to rig the March 2, 2020 elections, in favour of the now main opposition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC).

A prolonged recount of the votes eventually declared victory to the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), resulting in the swearing-in of President, Dr. Irfaan Ali.
During a recent broadcast programme called ‘Lets Talk Politics’ with Edward Layne, PPP/C’s GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, rubbished Alexander’s claims that efforts to remove the GECOM trio were “racially motivated”.
“When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” Gunraj reasoned. The attorney-at-law maintained that there is sufficient evidence in the public domain to question the integrity of Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo, and their suitability to function during another election in Guyana.
Gunraj also chided Alexander for citing race as a reason behind the PPP/C’s motion to have the GECOM trio dismissed. “Everything is viewed through those race-coloured lenses… the only hammer they have is race, so every issue presented to themselves is a nail that has to be lashed with race,” Gunraj argued.
Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, expressed the belief that Guyanese are knowledgeable enough to not be misled by racial rhetoric. “People saw with their own eyes what happen,” Indar said.

UTTER NONSENSE

He also joined Gunraj in accusing members of the APNU+AFC of being irresponsible in what they say to the nation. “To tell people that the motion is racial, is utter nonsense. Mingo tried to rig the elections over and over; Myers was [also] in there…you are supposed to count the people’s votes; not count what you want to count and report what you want,” the Public Works minister posited. He believes that persons who find nothing wrong with the GECOM trio’s conduct during the elections, ought to engage in some introspection. “If you are going to defend those kinds of wrongs, those kind of blatant rigging of elections…trying to steal an entire country, [then] it speaks to [your] value system,” Indar maintained. He contended that had Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo been operating outside of Guyana, the severity of the repercussions would have been far more severe.

NOT FIT

“If anybody else in the world had done something like this, they would’ve been in jail, not fired alone,” Indar posited, adding that “Thousands of votes they were trying to disenfranchise people… anybody who represents rigging is not fit to be in democratic society.” With Local Government Elections due this year, Indar said that the three GECOM officers cannot be allowed to hold the country at ransom, once more. “How can we continue to develop as a country when every single election cycle, you have these kinds of fears? People have to go through this kind of trauma,” the minister added. He said that a healthy electoral system is even more important now, as Guyana continues to attract investors from all over the world. “You can’t have people trying to rig the elections every five years, and that is what these guys are doing,” Indar indicated. Presently, Lowenfield is faced with three counts of Misconduct in Public Office, and three counts of Forgery; while Mingo was charged with four counts of Misconduct in Public Office, and Myers with two counts of Misconduct in Public Office.

It was only last week that Gunraj introduced a motion for the “immediate dismissal” of the GECOM three, on the premise of their alleged breaches and misconduct during the protracted elections. In addition to Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers, Chairperson of the People’s National Congress/ Reform (PNC/R), Volda Lawrence; Opposition activist, Carol Joseph; the CEO’s clerks, Michelle Miller and Denise Bob-Cummings; Elections Officer, Shefern February and Information Technology Officer, Enrique Livan were also charged.
They are all accused of inflating the results of Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district – to give the APNU+AFC Coalition a majority win at the March 2 polls when in fact, the PPP/C had won by 15,000 more votes. Prior to the motions for dismissal, Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George, S.C. had ordered that the certified copies of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) and Statements of Recount (SoRs) from the aforementioned elections, be released to the Commissioner of Police (ag), Nigel Hoppie, and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, S.C, to facilitate ongoing investigations into the 2020 election saga.