The PPP government nominated Commissioners on the Guyana Elections Commission have tabled a motion at the Commission seeking the immediate dismissal of Keith Lowenfield as Chief Elections Officer.
Lowenfield is currently before the Courts facing charges of forgery and misconduct in public office related to allegations of fraud at the 2020 elections.
In the motion seeking Lowenfield’s dismissal as Chief Elections Officer, Commissioners Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shadick and Manoj Narayan contend that Lowenfield breached his functions, duties, responsibilities and obligations as Chief Elections Officer and neglected compliance of the statutory process concerning the obligation of controlling and supervising an election officer under his control, referring to the Region 4 Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.
They also contend that Lowenfield breached his functions and responsibilities and neglected to ensure that the process of ascertaining the total number of votes cast in favour of each list of candidates for District Four by adding up the votes recorded in the Statements of Poll was done with dispatch and without inordinate or undue delay.
Additionally, the three Commissioners are also seeking the firing of Lowenfield for neglecting to provide proper and lawful directions, instructions and guidance to the Officers and employees of the Secretariat in the performance of their statutory duties during the process of adding up the votes for the elections.
They also complain in their motion that Lowenfield did not act even after complaints and public protests from members of the contesting opposition political parties that there were major discrepancies in the votes recorded in the Statements of Poll in the possession of those parties and the votes declared by the Returning Officer for District Four.
The move by the Government nominated Commissioners came one day after the Court handed over copies of the Region 4 Statements of Poll and Statements of Recount to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Police Commissioner.
The DPP and the Police Commissioner sought and were granted the release of the documents to boost their investigation and cases against Lowenfield and other Elections Commission staffers over the fraud allegations surrounding the 2020 elections.
Lowenfield’s contract as Chief Elections Officer at the Guyana Elections Commission was renewed in 2019.
Now that the motion has been tabled, the Elections Commission will have to decide on whether the motion goes forward and what process will be used if it goes forward to initiate the dismissal of the Chief Elections Officer.
APNU+AFC nominated GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander today told News Source that while the motion was tabled, the Commissioners are still to receive copies. He however noted that the motion appears to be pre-empting the ongoing Court case.
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