CHIEF Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield has moved to the Georgetown High Court seeking an order preventing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)- nominated GECOM Commissioners, Sase Gunraj and Bibi Shadick from participating as adjudicators in the hearing of the motion for his dismissal.
Lowenfield, through his attorney, Nigel Hughes, has filed a fixed-date application against GECOM, seeking, among other things, a declaration that Gunraj and Shadick, in their motion for his dismissal, cannot properly participate, hear and determine their own complaint against him.
He is also seeking a declaration from the court that he is “entitled to the protection of the rules of natural justice, and the right to a fair hearing in the hearing and determination of the motion for dismissal.”

Additionally, the embattled GECOM chief wants “a declaration that the Respondent, having determined that there shall be a hearing of the Motion for dismissal of the Applicant brought by Commissioners Gunraj and Shadick, is bound to provide the applicant with a fair hearing, including the protections of the rules of natural justice.”
On June 1, 2021, GECOM Commissioners Gunraj, Shadick and Manoj Narayan had tabled a motion seeking the “immediate dismissal” of Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers, and Clairmont Mingo, Returning Officer for Region Four at the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.
In filing that motion, Gunraj, Shadick and Narayan relied on a gamut of reasons pertaining to breach of functions, duties, responsibilities and obligations to support their call for the trio’s dismissal.

GECOM had unanimously decided to send the trio on paid leave, effective June 28, so as to give it enough time to conclude the ongoing discussions regarding their dismissal within the shortest possible time.
The GECOM trio has come in for harsh criticism from the public at large for their alleged conduct at the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections. They have since been charged, and are currently before the court for a series of electoral fraud.
It is alleged that the trio, between March 2 and August 2, 2020, at Georgetown, they conspired with each other, together with Volda Lawrence, Carol Smith-Joseph, Sherfern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Bobb- Cummings, Michelle Miller and others to defraud the electors of Guyana by declaring a false account of votes for the elections.

They and their alleged co-conspirators are all accused of inflating the results of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Guyana’s largest voting district, to give the APNU+AFC Coalition a majority win at the polls, when in fact the PPP/C had won by 15,000 votes.
This dispute resulted in several legal challenges which ended up before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), ewhich is Guyana’s highest court of appeal, and a five-month delay in the declaration of the results. A lengthy recount of the votes eventually declared victory in favour of the PPP/C, which led to Dr. Irfaan Ali being sworn in as the President of Guyana.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, S.C., granted a fiat to attorneys-at-law, Glenn Hanoman, Mark Conway, Ganesh Hira, Arudranauth Gossai and George Thomas, to prosecute the matters on behalf of the State.
In May, Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George, S.C., had ordered the release of the certified copies of the elections’ Statements of Poll (SoPs) and Statements of Recount (SoRs) to the Commissioner of Police (ag), Nigel Hoppie, and the DPP for use in the prosecution of the cases against the GECOM officials.