The Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) yesterday accused Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield of overstepping his authority by discrediting the results of the March 2nd polls in his report on the national recount.
It has since called on GECOM Chair Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh to ignore those aspects of the report which are not the recount tabulation.
“It is clear that GECOM is enjoined by the law and the Constitution to ignore every aspect of Lowenfield’s Report, other than the General Elections Recount Totals and the Regional Elections Recount Totals,” the party said in a statement issued yesterday after Lowenfield submitted his report. It has been calling for the results of the recount to be used to swear in its candidate Irfaan Ali, while the incumbent has said the results are not credible. Attorney General Basil Williams yesterday also argued that GECOM ought not to request Lowenfield to submit a report for the finalisation of the results on the ground that the irregularities, discrepancies and anomalies affected the integrity and credibility of the elections
Reminding that Singh had previously declared the elections as free, fair and credible, the PPP/C also criticised Lowenfield for assuming the role of an investigator, judge and executioner. “[He] made conclusive findings, in respect of the wild, reckless and baseless allegations made by APNU+AFC and rendered a judgement on them, concluding that they were established, without doing any investigations, hearing any one affected and applying principles only known to himself,” the party said.
His actions, the PPP/C contends, are without lawful basis and consequently of no effect.
The Order, which governs the recently concluded National Recount, provided for the matrices for the recount of the 10 Electoral Districts to be tabulated by the CEO before being submitted in a report, together with a summary of the observation reports for each District, to GECOM.
These matrices, which were certified by GECOM’s Secretariat, show that the PPP/C’s list of candidates has secured 233,336 votes compared to the 217,920 secured by the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition, a difference 15,416 votes.
Lowenfield, however, has argued that those results were not credible and the votes not tainted amount to 185,260 or just over 40% of the votes deemed valid. By his alternative count of valid votes, the coalition would secure a majority.
In his summation for each Electoral District he contends that the identified anomalies and instances of voter impersonation do not appear to satisfy the criteria of impartiality, fairness, and compliance with provisions of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act.
The PPP/C drew attention to the fact that the CEO’s pronouncements and tabulations bear a striking resemblance to the contentions and calculations of the APNU+AFC.
“He would make an excellent witness for the APNU+AFC at the trial of an Election Petition,” it said, while reiterating that Lowenfield had no power or authority or any mandate to offer a view, opinion or judgement of any type in the Observation Report.
The party has also argued that in declaring that the elections lacked credibility Lowenfield has indicted his own elections and has in effect, conceded that he has committed misfeasance in public office. “He has also thrown under the bus thousands of Guyanese, who have worked diligently in the electoral machinery,” it said.
The PPP/C further said that Lowenfield has rendered the entire Commission complicit in spending approximately $8 billion of taxpayers’ dollars in holding elections that were not credible.
