Georgetown: After evading the authorities since the charges were filed on June 30, 2020, Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield was served his summons Thursday and is expected to appear in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court Friday to answer to three private criminal charges.
He was initially slated to appear in court on July 3 but did not show up after the court’s bailiff was unable to serve the documents on him; as such Magistrate Faith McGusty instructed the authorities to ensure Lowenfield is served before his next court appearance on July 24.
Lowenfield came under scrutiny for preparing his elections report on March 5 which shows a victory for the incumbent APNU+AFC Coalition based on fraudulent and inflated figures provided by Clairmont Mingo, the Returning Officer for Guyana’s largest voting district- Region 4.
The national recount proved that Mingo inflated votes in favour of the Coalition and it was the PPP that actually won the March 2 elections by over 15,000 votes.
The PPP has maintained that Lowenfield knew the true winner the elections since he would have in his possession GECOM’s Statements of Poll (SOPs).
As a result of Mingo’s fraud, GECOM embarked on the national vote recount following which Lowenfield in his summary provided a table which revealed the totals for the ten electoral districts which were signed off by GECOM’s own staff as being valid; when added up, Lowenfield’s report shows the PPP winning the elections by 15, 416 votes.
General Secretary of The New Movement (TNM), Josh Kanhai said “Mr Lowenfield has been evading the summons but fortunately, after careful planning and strategy, he was served at GECOM Secretariat’s office. Mr Lowenfield will be expected to be present in Court tomorrow morning, July 24th, 2020, at 9:00hrs to face the private criminal charges brought before him.”
According to court documents, it is alleged that between March 5, 2020, and June 23, 2020, Lowenfield conspired with person (s) unknown to commit a common law Fraud, “to wit, by presenting to the Guyana Elections Commission, the tables attached to his Elections Report dated 14th day of March 2020, accurately reflected the true results of the said election, in order to materially alter the results of the said election, with intent to defraud, knowing the tabulation to be false.”
“The Accused between 5th March 2020 and 29th June 2020 while performing his duty as the Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission, without lawful excuse or justification, willfully misconducted himself at Georgetown…a place within the Georgetown Magisterial District by ascertaining results of the 2nd March 2020, General and Regional Elections for Guyana knowing the said results to be false, the said willful misconduct amounting to a breach of the public’s trust in the Office of the Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission,” the court document stated.
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