Granger says Lowenfield did ‘remarkably well’

President David Granger on Sunday said the country’s Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield did a “remarkably well” job of running the elections; Mr Lowenfield Saturday presented a report of the national vote recount that is identical to the wild allegations made by the Coalition APNU+AFC, which Granger leads.

With a budget of some $8 billion, Lowenfield discredited the entire elections process with his report. And though Granger said he is running low on funds to run the Government, he praised Lowenfield for running an election with billions of dollars that, he, Lowenfield himself said was badly run and that he could not say if the results were credible.

“…in my view, Mr. Lowenfield did remarkably well under pressure with limited resources and circumstances,” Granger said during a programme in which he selected who should interview him.

There was never any question by the Commission of funding throughout the whole exercise.

President David Granger (center) Chairman of GECOM Justice Claudette Singh (left) and Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield at the Arthur Chung Conference Center on May 17 [Photo: Ministry of the Presidency]And GECOM was not under pressure with timelines because Granger himself waited until he was told by GECOM when was best to hold elections and that is when he called the elections. Further, it was Lowenfield who prepared the work plan for the elections that dictated when it would be best to hold the elections.

Lowenfield Saturday presented a report showing the correct figures of the recount, which show the PPP winning by over 15, 000 votes, but he included a report which contained the unsubstantiated allegations made by APNU+AFC during the national vote recount.

Of the nine parties which contested the elections, it was only APNU+AFC that raised what the other eight parties said were wild allegations which could not be proved. Though the parties objected to APNU+AFC’s allegations, their objections were not recorded.

And so, all Lowenfield has in his reports are observations from the Coalition.