GECOM renews Lowenfield’s contract… Opposition-nominated Commissioners abstain

Dec 11, 2019 News

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has renewed the employment contract of its Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, for three years, as the current contract is coming to an end.

GECOM CEO, Keith Lowenfield

A clause in the contract requires Lowenfield to notify the Commission three months prior to the expiration of the contract that same is imminent. And so he did.
While the Chair, Justice Claudette Singh and the Government-nominated Commissioners voted in support of the renewal of Lowenfield’s contract, the Opposition-nominated Commissioners didn’t.
Speaking to reporters outside the Commission’s Kingston headquarters last night, Sase Gunraj said that they felt it would be fitting to wait until after the March 2020 General and Regional Elections to judge the performance of the CEO.
“I asked that the matter be deferred until after elections have been concluded, because I believe that the true test of the performance of the CEO would be these elections,” the Commissioner said.
The Chair disagreed.
Gunraj, along with Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn, abstained from the vote.
Vincent Alexander opined that it would not have been fair to let the CEO go into these elections with uncertainty about his fate in that post.
“In fact, to re-appoint the CEO would give him the kind of environment for him to proceed without [that uncertainty],” Alexander said.
GECOM will meet again today to discuss how it will use the House to House data. So far, discussions have been inconclusive. The Commissioners will also seek to decide on how the Secretariat will list the names of persons who have not yet uplifted their identification cards, on the Revised List of Electors (RLE). The period for the uplifting of those has been extended indefinitely.

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