Time to end this nightmare

Dear Editor,
Justice Claudette Singh’s letter of July 9, 2020, requesting Mr Keith Lowenfield to submit the recount report, signalled to the entire world that she was ready to move on with declaring the March 2 elections’ results. To the nation’s dismay, Mr Lowenfield failed to submit the requested report because he needed further clarity.

Justice Singh’s letter was crystal clear, and left little or no room for misinterpretation. There is absolutely nothing to clarify. Mr. Lowenfield is only pussyfooting as he does not strike me as someone deficient in his understanding of the English language. Hence, this latest antic can only be seen as another treacherous act perpetrated by the APNU/AFC and their cohorts to thwart the will of the Guyanese people.

That Mr Lowenfield is ignoring the recount results by contending that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) judgment noted that the Recount Order and the Constitution of Guyana are at odds is yet another disgraceful attempt to rig these elections and keep the incompetent Granger Administration in office.

According to the CCJ, it is Mr Lowenfield’s attempts to disenfranchise over one hundred thousand voters in a non-transparent and arbitrary way that is inconsistent with the highest law of the land, the Constitution. Mr Lowenfield’s behaviour would not be tolerated anywhere else in the free world. At best, it is tantamount to insubordination of the worst kind; at worst, it can easily be described as electoral fraud. Regardless of the description, he should be summarily dismissed, since it is clear that he has no intention of complying with the request, clarification or not.

However, his dismissal would not bring us any closer to a declaration of the results. This is because the Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), the one next in line, is Ms. Roxanne Myers, a known APNU+AFC sympathizer.
Of course, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) can hire a replacement from the outside, but that would take time and the country would be no closer to a result.

While Mr. Lowenfield’s actions are not entirely surprising, given all that we have seen in the last 130 days, it begs the question: Where do we go from here?
Perhaps Mr Lowenfield is buying time for his handlers to concoct another frivolous court challenge. Or perhaps his stonewalling is designed to frustrate the Opposition and their supporters to such an extent that they would have no alternative other than to take to the streets, thus providing Mr Granger with the basis for declaring the state of emergency he hinted at not so long ago.

Whatever the real reason for Mr Lowenfield’s failure to comply with Justice Singh’s request, it is clear that all stakeholders except the APNU/ACF are growing impatient. It is high time that Justice Singh put an end to this nightmare.

Yours faithfully,
Omchand Mahdu