Latest update April 8th, 2025 7:13 AM
Alexander, Corbin no show at GECOM meeting set to discuss dismissal of Lowenfield, others
Kaieteur News – The statutory meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) scheduled for the discussion of the dismissal of Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, and others was postponed yesterday after two of the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) appointed Commissioners, Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin, failed to show up.
Commissioner, Vincent Alexander.
The meeting has now been rescheduled for next Tuesday. Earlier, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) appointed GECOM Commissioners Bibi Shadick, Sase Gunraj and Manoj Narine tabled three separate motions for the immediate dismissal of Lowenfield, his Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers, and Region Four Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo.
The three officials, who are currently before the court on charges related to electoral fraud, were cited for a series of grave violations connected to the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections and for their defiance of the instructions by the GECOM Chair, Claudette Singh, to use the recount figures for the final results of the elections.
Yesterday, Commissioner Gunraj who is representing the interest of the government on the panel told this newspaper, that he finds it suspicious that the two Commissioners would provide an excuse as to why they can’t make it to a meeting scheduled to deal with such an important issue.
Mr. Gunraj noted that the involvement of the two absentee Commissioners is integral to the procedure. “Since there is no quorum, then we could not proceed with the order of the day,” Gunraj said.
Commissioner, Vincent Corbin.
Kaieteur News understands that Alexander and Corbin indicated by way of letter to the Chairperson, Justice retired Claudette Singh, that they both would be absent from the meeting since they had a funeral to attend.
The motion to dismiss Lowenfield outlined that he failed and/or refused and/or neglected to ensure that the process of ascertaining the total number of votes cast in favour of each list of candidates for Election District Number Four by adding up the votes recorded in the Statements of Poll was done “with dispatch” and without “inordinate or undue delay.” Specifically, the motion detailed among other things, what was referred to as Lowenfield’s open defiance of court orders in his “active pursuit to fraudulently declare” the APNU+AFC coalition as winners of the March 2, 2020 Regional and General Polls.
The motion points to the CEO’s preparations of a final report pursuant to Section 99 of ROPA containing all of the unverified votes as declared by Mingo in which he declared the APNU+AFC the winners despite the injunctions pending a decision of Chief Justice, Roxane George-Wiltshire.
In another instance, the document outlined that the CEO was found in breach by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in relation to the recount report submitted on the 23rd June, 2020 “when he took it upon himself to invalidate such votes as he considered ought to be invalidated.”
In a second motion, the PPP/C Commissioners note, inter alia, that the DCEO acted on her own volition when she facilitated a meeting on March 5, 2020 with a candidate of the contesting party, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karen Cummings, at the GECOM’s Command Centre at Ashmin’s building. It noted too that Myers acted on her own volition when she instructed police officers to remove Commissioner Gunraj, and others from the building on March 5, 2020. This, according to the Commissioners, caused the loss of public confidence in the electoral process.
Meanwhile, as it relates to Mingo, the motion points to his orchestration of the attempt to rig the elections in favour of APNU+AFC. Among other things, the document calling for Mingo’s dismissal notes that without any lawful authority or proper justification or excuse, the RO deliberately failed, refused and neglected to ascertain the total votes cast in favour of each list in the district by adding up the votes recorded in favour of the list in accordance with the Statements of Poll as is required by the Section and instead, he whether by himself or those acting with his authority or under his direction, sought to use in the adding up process, figures.
Taking into account the charges the trio faces, the Commissioners said that regardless of the outcome, GECOM must take all necessary steps and action and dismiss them to restore and ensure impartiality, credibility, transparency, public confidence and public trust in its institution.
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