Lowenfield made Mingo look like a simple pick-pocket

Dear Editor,
Guyana’s 2020 General and Regional Elections have been reviewed repeatedly and extensively by both national and regional courts. While the OAS General Secretariat advocates for the right of all citizens to access electoral justice, there is a fine line between the right to redress and the use of the courts to stall the electoral process.

What we all saw displayed by Lowenfield is a clear blatant violation of the Order. Lowenfield arrogated to himself the position of Chief Mastermind for the APNU/AFC rigging cabal. Lowenfield made Mingo look like a simple pick-pocket. There is now clear evidence that the APNU/AFC, in coalition with Lowenfield and other elements of GECOM, continue their relentless attempts to prevent the accurate results for the March 02,2020 General and Regional Elections from being declared with the correct valid votes cast by the people of Guyana.

All that Lowenfield was asked to do was to prepare the statutory form showing the true allocation of seats for each political party under Section 99 of the Representation of the People Act, and to signify that Dr Irfaan Ali has been elected President of Guyana under Article 177 of the Constitution based on using the totals of valid votes cast, which he had already presented to Madam Chairman, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, and the GECOM Commission.

However, instead of carrying out the request of the Chairman of the Elections Commission made to Mr. Lowenfield in her letter of 16th June, 2020, to use “the results of the Recount for the consideration
of the Commission”, in his Report, Mr Lowenfield attached a Table in which he arbitrarily and unilaterally seeks to disenfranchise some 115,844 voters, or 25% of the persons who legitimately cast
their votes in a completely valid process on Election Day, and purports to assign the allocation of seats to the contesting parties on the basis of votes cast which bear no relationship whatsoever to the matrices produced from the Statements of Recount or the Certificate of Valid Votes tabulated at the Recount.

However, under the guidance of the APNU/AFC leadership, he has resorted to a conspiracy to commit electoral fraud at common law, a most grievous offence which can attract severe penalty.
Editor, those who are in conspiracy with him would be exposed to the same criminal liabilities.
We must all remember that in 2015, when the PPP/C lost the elections by a narrow margin of just over 4000 votes, it took its challenge of the election to the court by way of an Elections Petition. The PPP/C never held Guyana and the people of Guyana to ransom. It’s unfortunate that here we are in 2020, the world and the citizens of Guyana have seen the APNU/AFC coalition and cabal not displaying any democratic characteristic, but continuing to expose it dictatorial tendencies. Having failed at rigging the elections on the basis of the electoral fraud by elements in GECOM, it is now trying to steal the elections on the basis of an order from the Court of Appeal.

The Organisation of American States has accompanied the March 2 General and Regional Elections in Guyana through all of its stages, including the National Recount in Georgetown from May 6 to June 8, 2020. OAS observers were present for the determination and tabulation of the total valid votes cast in each Region – totals that were subsequently confirmed by the Chief Elections Officer and submitted to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
GECOM is therefore already in possession of a result based on the valid votes cast on March 2, 2020 through a recount exercise that was approved by all stakeholders. In these circumstances, the OAS General Secretariat expects that anyone who wishes to challenge the validity of any of these votes should do so through an election petition filed in the High Court, after GECOM declares the election result based on the recount data.

The OAS remains committed to the strengthening of democracy in Guyana, hoping for a just and fair conclusion of the current process.
Thanks to Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for granting an injunction blocking the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from issuing a declaration of the elections results until it hands down final orders relating to the application filed by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.

Sincerely,
David Adams