Lowenfield entitled to apologies over misguided attacks

Dear Editor,

The PPP/C and its Leader Bharrat Jagdeo have succeeded in creating doubts and suspicion in the minds of sections of the population on any and every measure that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) proposes to and has taken, to resolve the current election crisis. The most recent manifestation of their resolve is located in the contrived hysteria over the submission by GECOM’s Chief Elec-tion Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield’s plan that proposed among other things, 156 days to complete the recount of the votes cast in the March 02, 2020, General and Regional Elections.

I will restrict my observations in this letter to the reactions in some quarters to the number of days in the work plan and how it was arrived at. It is not my intention to offer any opinion on the merits or demerits of the recount proposal. My concern is with the uninformed criticisms of the plan and the vicious ridicule that Lowenfield and other senior members of GECOM’s Secretariat have been subjected to while being accused of election rigging. On this issue, many letter writers and commentators have taken their lead from the PPP/C and Jagdeo, rather than conduct their own objective examination of the proposed plan. They followed Jagdeo’s lead with no regard for the consequences on this sensitive national undertaking, which will determine the future of the country.

Without any knowledge of the directives that the CEO received from GECOM, which influenced the content of the work plan, the critics resorted to the usual accusations of rigging. Interestingly these self-righteous letter writers, even in the face of information that contradicted their support of Jagdeo’s biased response to Lowenfield’s proposal are incapable of self-correction. They are happy to be judge and jury in matters relating to GECOM and the elections. This is the nature of the democratic norms they have set out to impose on Guyana.

I point readers to the revelations made by Commissioner Vincent Alexander, that GECOM had agreed to a PPP/C proposal put by its Commissioner Benn and supported also by Commissioners Gunraj and Shadick, for two Commissioners to be present at each workstation to overlook the recount. This, therefore, meant that with six commissioners, Lowenfield was restricted to a maximum of three workstations, which influenced the details, including the 156 days duration, contained in his work plan.

While some of the critics might not have been aware of the directives that influenced Lowenfield’s work plan, Jagdeo and the other leaders in the PPP/C certainly had the information. However, in their usual, dishonest way they very deliberately set out to deceive the public. By refusing to factor into their criticism Commissioner Benn’s insistence for two Commissioners to a work-station and, even after Alexander’s clarification and the subsequent confirmation by another PPP/C Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, the PPP/C and their critics have been unrelenting in their campaign of disinformation and slander. Having contributed to Lowenfield’s dilemma the opposition party and its leader conveyed to the public that it was all the CEO’s doing and is integral to the efforts at election rigging.

What is disturbing is to date, none of the critics and the self-righteous letter writers have demonstrated the courage and sense of fairness to apologise to Lowenfield and the members of GECOM’s Secretariat for their misguided attacks. In the present political environment, none will be forthcoming.  This is another testament to the corrupting influence of Jagdeo and the PPP/C.

Yours faithfully,

Tacuma Ogunseye