Solid grounds to prosecute Lowenfield – Christopher Ram

The adjournment of the private criminal charges against Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield to allow for the submission of further documents has led some to call for the dismissal of the charges.

However, prominent Attorney-at-Law Christopher Ram has asserted that solid grounds exist for the private criminal charges Lowenfield currently faces.
His arguments come in light of calls by caretaker Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan for the charges to be dismissed on the basis of malicious prosecution. In an interview with this publication, Ram shared his views on the charges that were brought by The New Movement (TNM) candidate, Dr Josh Kanhai, and Desmond Morian.
“If he (Ramjattan) feels Lowenfield has such a great chance of success, maybe he should take on the matter. Private citizens with a direct stake in the matter have brought action. I wonder if Ramjattan knows what are the conditions to succeed on malicious prosecution. He’s completely wrong,” the attorney said.

According to Ram, there is nothing wrong with the participants needing more time to submit statements and moreover, there are solid grounds for the charges. He posited that if something was wrong as persons have suggested, Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty would not have adjourned the case.

“There are solid grounds for the institution of the charges and what Ramjattan should do as a lawyer is wait till this process plays out and then he may want to offer some pro bono legal advice to Mr Lowenfield.”
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong (with the adjournment). If there was something so wrong, clearly the Magistrate would have recognised that” Ram said, adding that the whole of Guyana and the world are witnesses to the CEO’s actions.
Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield made his first appearance in court before Magistrate McGusty on Friday. Lowenfield, who was represented by Attorney Nigel Hughes and Senior Counsel Neil Boston, was slapped with three private criminal charges regarding the conspiracy to commit fraud, misconduct in public office and breach of trust.

Charges
Kanhai, the General Secretary of TNM, had filed a charge which stated that between March 5 and June 23, 2020, the CEO conspired with person(s) unknown to commit the common law offence of fraud when he submitted his election report dated June 23 to include figures that altered the results of the elections.
Meanwhile, Morian had contended that Lowenfield, while performing his duties as CEO of GECOM, ascertained the results of the March 2 elections “knowing the said results to be false, the said wilful misconduct amounting to a breach of the public’s trust in the office which he presides.

In fact, the charges against Lowenfield were filed since June 30. However, it took over three weeks before he was officially served on July 23, as the CEO did his best to avoid being served. On July 3, the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts was forced to issue a summons for the CEO after marshals could not find him to serve him with notice of the case.

When those two charges came up for hearing before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on July 3, Lowenfield was a no-show. Following that court session, Morian filed another private criminal charge, contending that Lowenfield conspired with a person or persons unknown to use Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo’s fraudulent figures to prepare a report that was submitted to the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice Claudette Singh, back in March.
Lowenfield was not required to plead to the indictable charges and was subsequently released on $150,000 for each of the charges, amounting to $450,000. The matter is scheduled to continue on August 14.

Insubordination
The GECOM Chair had written to Lowenfield on June 16, instructing him to prepare a final report based on the recount which showed that the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won the elections with 233,336 votes while the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition garnered 217,920.
Instead, Lowenfield had submitted a report invalidating over 115,000 votes based on unsubstantiated allegations of dead and migrant voters, made by the APNU/AFC. Lowenfield’s actions caused an immediate uproar and the varying sides found themselves in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for the Irfaan Ali et al v Eslyn David et al case.
Among other decisions, the CCJ ruled in a unanimous decision that Lowenfield’s report which arbitrarily disenfranchised voters was invalid and that the concerns raised by the APNU/AFC coalition must be addressed in an election petition.

The GECOM Chair wrote Lowenfield again, instructing him to submit his report so that the President could be declared. However, Lowenfield then engaged in a back and forth with the Chair in which sections of the CCJ judgement were twisted and misconstrued.
He then submitted a fraudulent report to Justice Singh, in which he included the fraudulent declarations of embattled Returning Officer for Region Four Clairmont Mingo, which inaccurately shows that the PPP/C gained 80,920 votes while the APNU/AFC received 116,941 votes in Region Four.