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Lowenfield’s game is at an end, and so is the PNC’s

Lowenfield’s game is at an end, and so is the PNC’s

BY: HASEEF YUSUF

I have, on several occasions, said in my letters that GECOM CEO Keith Lowenfield is compromised, and his actions would suggest he is a PNC agent who would do everything in his power, and even beyond, to rig the elections on behalf of the APNU/AFC.

The recent exposure of what played out at the Magistrate’s Court confirmed this beyond any doubt. The very same lawyers who represented the PNC in the courts, Simona Broomes led the illegal protest in front of the courts in defiance of the COVID-19 restrictions, and Lowenfield was bailed by the PNC. If there is any doubt that he is a PNC agent, then let us rewind the past event which led to this conclusion. But is he not supposed to be impartial in carrying out his functions?

In February last year, it was reported that GECOM needed only 148 days to prepare for elections. According to Lowenfield, the Commission had to grant the Secretariat the approval to go into election mode. The Commission did not.
However, by now we are too keenly aware that the CCJ was used to delay the elections, so when it seems that GECOM was all ready to go to the Polls by July, 2019, the decision of the CCJ had to be awaited. The Commission cannot give the go ahead without the CCJ’s rulings on the No Confidence Motion.
The CEO made it appear as though he had a well-oiled GECOM machinery raring to go at that time. But it was all pretence!

In July last year, just before the CCJ’s decision that the NCM was successfully passed and that Patterson was illegally appointed, Lowenfield went into another delaying mode to support the APNU/AFC’s quest to defer the elections as long as possible. He no longer waited on the CCJ’s rulings, but embarked on the GECOM-backed delay by foisting the house-to-house registration on the Guyanese electorate. This precipitated the call for another Court intervention, and more delay. Lowenfield must support the PNC’s quest to delay the elections, and he did just that. It must be recalled that the Private Sector Commission upbraided Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield for commencing and sanctioning ‘an unsanctioned, unverified’ house-to-house registration. However, Lowenfield was never sanctioned, and neither was he intimidated in any way. He was fulfilling the PNC’s directives!

On July 24th of that year, it was reported that Lowenfield had admitted that the Official List of Voters which expired on April 30th, 2019 can still be used to execute free and fair General and Regional Elections, going back to what he said in February.
When asked whether the expired list was considered ‘bloated’, he replied, “We have a list that was expired…as of April 30…that was used for registration, etc. Bloat is not a word I’ll affix to it.” Now he is singing a different tune and wants to disenfranchise 115,787 legitimate voters.

Regarding the abortion of the HTH registration, Lowenfield then pushed the GECOM field staff to work overtime in an effort to extend the life of the HTH. It was clear that new registrants became the prime target for this extension. In many areas, eligible voters who are deemed PPP supporters were bypassed by GECOM staff. Despite that, he is now of the opinion that the List of Electors is fraudulent. He has now changed his tune to suit the PNC’s narrative of “fraud”.

Again, at the beginning of October 2019, just before the starting of the Claims and Objections period, Lowenfield unilaterally extended the Claims and Objections period from the agreed 35 days to 49 days, and then to 42 days. He claimed he did that “in the interest of giving the electorate more time to have their claims and objections sorted out”.
Even though the Chair promised to correct the period to 35 days, it never materialised, prompting Commissioner Shadick to conclude, “We have another Chairman, who is going against decisions of the Commission…” Again, despite this extended period, Lowenfield is now crying foul, echoing what the PNC wants its supporters to believe.

Then Lowenfield made the decision to publish the list of registrants captured during the concluded HTH registration. The PPP-nominated Commissioners were adamant that no such decision was taken by the full Commission. However, the HtH registration list was published and attached to the Preliminary List of Electors, and persons were advised that between the days of October 1st and November 11th, they should make a claim or objection.
According to PNC Commissioner Charles Corbin, these should be treated with “the same procedure used during claims and objections”. It must be recalled that this verified data was ‘merged’ with the National Register of Registrants Database.

With all that had happened to it, how can Lowenfield now claim that the list is ‘fraudulent’?
Then, after the March 2nd Elections were declared to be free, fair and credible, we have seen that the electoral process in the verification of the Region 4 votes has been hijacked by no other that the Returning Officer, a GECOM appointee who collaborated with the CEO. Mingo produced the infamous ‘spreadsheet’ which gave the Coalition a ‘win’ despite the SoPs giving the PPP/C an overwhelming majority.

Again, Lowenfield made a fraudulent report based on Mingo’s fraudulent figures, but his Coalition-sponsored game did not stop there. Again the matter went to the Court, and Mingo was instructed to abide by Section 84 of the Representation of the People’s Act. He defied this order, and contempt proceedings were filed against him.
Then came the Recount, which again saw the attempt by Lowenfield to postpone the finalisation of the electoral process. He produced a Recount plan which would last 156 days.

This lengthy ‘recount plan’ was to get rid of the international observers, since it was deemed impossible for them to remain that long in the country. Lowenfield’s plan was to rig the Elections in favour of the PNC. After much protestation by the PPP/C and the other smaller parties, the Recount plan was reduced to 25 days, and was eventually completed in 33 days. Lowenfield had wanted to buy in excess of 4 months’ time for the PNC. Unfortunately, this was then achieved by frivolous and vexatious court actions, which are still ongoing.

However, Lowenfield must complete his mission to rig the Elections, and after the Recount, which showed a landslide victory for the PPP/C, he foisted another false and fraudulent report despite being clearly instructed by the GECOM Chair in a clear and precisely mandated letter to use the Recount figures. He again used Mingo’s fraudulent figures, despite the recount clearly established Mingo’s fraud.

He was given three attempts to produce his report based on the recount figures, but he failed to do so.
Shockingly, Lowenfield, in his report on the Recount, said the results do not meet the standard of fair and credible elections. His report erroneously claimed 55% of votes cast on March 2nd stand to be negatively impacted due to either anomalies and/or voter impersonation or unreconciled ballots. Of this, he claimed 39.2 percent represented voters’ impersonation.

This is preposterous, given the strict voting process. He produced no evidence to support this. Like the Mingo figures, Lowenfield concocted his own anomalies.
It is a clear conspiracy by Mingo, Lowenfield and the PNC to rig the 2020 elections, and I am positive that, given Lowenfield’s actions, there is humongous evidence to support the criminal charges of fraud, misconduct in public office, and conspiracy to commit a felony laid against him.
Lowenfield’s game is at an end, and so is the PNC’s!

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