Opposition Commissioners exit GECOM meeting on fate of Lowenfield, Myers, Mingo

Jul 21, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News – Opposition-appointed Commissioners of the Guyana Election Commission (GECOM), yesterday prematurely left a meeting, which was scheduled to discuss the dismissal of Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers; and Region Four’s Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo.

Government appointed Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, disclosed that Desmond Trotman, Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin, the three Commissioners who were appointed by the A Partnership For National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition, prematurely exited the virtual meeting before the matter could be discussed, or a decision could be met.
Gunraj said that the panel is now awaiting word from the Chairperson of the Commission, Justice (Ret’d), Claudette Singh, on the way forward.
He noted, that while the law provides that a quorum of GECOM Commissioners is needed when decisions of such are being made, Article 226 (5) of the Guyana Constitution, also makes provision for the absence of that quorum.
Article 226 (5) states that: “For the purposes of the preceding paragraphs, a quorum shall consist, in the case of the Elections Commission, of the Chairman and not less than four members, two of whom have been appointed by the President in his own deliberate judgment, and two from among members appointed on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition tendered in accordance with Article 161.”

Further, the Article 226 (5) (b) provides that if at any stage of a duly summoned meeting a quorum is not present, due to the absence of members therefore without just cause, such just cause being determined by the Chairman, the meeting shall stand adjourned to a day not later than two calendar days…the meeting shall stand adjourned to the following day, at the same time and place, and notice of such adjournment shall be given to the absent members; and if at the adjourned meeting a Quorum is not present, the members then present, being not less than four including the Chairman, shall be deemed to constitute a quorum, and any decision made at that or any such meeting shall be valid in law and binding.”
Meanwhile, Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of discussions by GECOM on the motions seeking their dismissal.
The motions to dismiss Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo, were tabled by People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) appointed GECOM Commissioners Bibi Shadick, Sase Gunraj and Manoj Narine, at a statutory meeting of the Commissioners, earlier this month. 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.

The motion against 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 Elections District Number Four by adding up the votes recorded in the Statements of Poll, was done 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 Representation of People’s Act, 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 June 23, 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 Returning Officer 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.

 

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