The Georgetown Magistrate Court has issued a summons for Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield to show up in court to answer three private criminal charges filed against him under the claim he provided false results of the March 2 elections to the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
The bailiff from the court tried to serve the two initial charges on Lowenfield; these attempts were made twice at his office at the GECOM headquarters in Kingston and then at two private addresses he is connected to in South Ruimveldt, Georgetown.
However, Attorney Glenn Hanoman said the security detail attached to Lowenfield, including members of the Police Force, have not cooperated in allowing Lowenfield to be served with the charges.
On Friday another charge was filed against Lowenfield in connection with the same claim; this charge relates to his acceptance of falsified figures from the District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo which would have provided a wrong result for the elections.
When the case was raised before Magistrate Faith McGusty in Court 5 of the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court Friday morning, Hanoman asked for the Police’s help in ensuring Lowenfield is served and that he appears in court at the appointed Court date of July 24.
Hanoman said he is hoping the Police will serve the summons to Lowenfield as their job is to support the court in administering justice rather than obstructing it.
People’s Progressive Party (PPP) member Desmond Morian and executive of The New Movement Daniel Josh Kanhai were the ones who filed the charges. Hanoman represents Morian while attorneys Mark Conway and George Thomas represent Kanhai.
“The magistrate has issued a summons which we expect the Police Force to comply using the Police Act and also the Magistrate Act to aid us in bringing this man to justice,” Kanhai said.
Kanhai explained that Lowenfield has been evading being served the court order.
“We have observed that he has been aided by ranks of the Police.
“He was not at his home when we tried to go there, he was not at his office at GECOM secretariat it was tightly secured and we were denied entry.
“We will be attempting that service again and a summons will be backing us up from the court itself,” Kanhai said.
According to court documents seen by the News Room, Lowenfield is accused of misconduct in office and breach of the public’s trust by providing results of the March 2 elections which he knows to be false.
“The Accused between 5th March 2020 and 29th June 2020 while performing his duty as the Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission, without lawful excuse or justification, willfully misconducted himself at Georgetown…a place within the Georgetown Magisterial District by ascertaining results of the 2nd March 2020, General and Regional Elections for Guyana knowing the said results to be false, the said willfull misconduct amounting to a breach of the public’s trust in the Office of the Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission,” the court document stated.
Lowenfield has faced harsh criticisms from organisations and civil society in Guyana and abroad for disobeying clear instructions given to him by Chairperson of the GECOM, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh to present a report to the Commission using the certified and valid figures from the national recount to declare the winner of the March 2 polls.
Lowenfield instead presented a report in which he dumped over 115,000 votes to give the incumbent APNU+AFC a victory.
The numbers presented in the report is in contradiction to a report he presented at the end of the national vote recount which gives the PPP/C a victory of 15,416 more votes.
Lowenfield is also under scrutiny for preparing a report on March 5 which shows a victory for the Coalition based on fraudulent and inflated figures provided by Clairmont Mingo, the Returning Officer for Guyana’s largest voting district- Region 4.
The national recount proved that Mingo inflated votes in favour of the Coalition.
The Coalition has endorsed both these reports submitted by Lowenfield.
