Lowenfield disregards instructions again, hands in false report

The country’s Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield has disregarded the clear instructions he received from Justice Claudette Singh, Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), and has submitted a false report on the results of the national vote recount.

He was due to present the report at 11:00 a.m. Saturday but failed to meet the deadline. However, shortly after, he presented a report that does not show the results of the recount which show a win for the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP). Instead, he has again presented a report which shows a win for APNU+AFC with a 32-seat majority.

In a letter to Lowenfield Friday, Justice Singh said she had carefully noted his concerns after he failed to submit his report then and asked for clarification, but that her letter from Thursday stands, that is, for him to provide a report on the national vote recount using the ten certificates of recount.

The recount showed that there were 460,352 valid votes with the PPP securing a majority of 233,336 votes. That would make for 33 seats in the National Assembly.

The Coalition APNU+AFC received 217,920 votes and gained 31 seats.

Together, the parties ANUG, LJP and TCM received 5,214 votes and would get the other seat to complete the 65-seat National Assembly.

But in his report Saturday, Lowenfield put the valid votes as 475, 118, giving APNU+AFC 236, 777 and the PPP 229, 330; he assigned the PPP 31 seats and three new parties – ANUG, LJP and TNM – one seat.