The private criminal charges brought against Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; his Deputy, Roxane Myers; and other elections staff of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are not only premature but unconstitutional, and forms part of a clear attempt by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government and its allies, to discredit them ahead of the much anticipated Election Petition cases, Vincent Alexander said.
Alexander – the country’s longest serving Election Commissioner during an interview on KAMS TV via Facebook on Thursday, spoke extensively on the criminal charges brought against the Election Officials, and the pending Election Petition cases filed by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.
During the course of the highly controversial General and Regional Elections, three private criminal charges were filed against the CEO for allegedly attempting to defraud the State. The first charge was filed by The New Movement’s (TNM) representative Daniel Josh Kanhai while the other two charges were filed by PPP/C Member Desmond Morian shortly after Lowenfield had submitted his second Elections Report on June 23 based on “valid votes” tabulated during the National Recount.
Chairman of GECOM, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh also faced private criminal charges. The charges against her were dropped shortly after the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) was declared the winner of the General and Regional Elections in August, but Lowenfield’s case remains active in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
From the onset, Alexander established that any challenge to the Elections ought to come by way of an Election Petition as prescribed by Article 163 of the Constitution and the National Assembly (Validity) of Elections Act. He was also keen on pointing out that while the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) instructed that the charges filed against the Chair of GECOM be dismissed, it took a decision to take over the prosecution of charges against the Chief Election Officer and the Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo notwithstanding the clear lack of evidence.
“There was no evidence when they came before the Court, and one would have expected that in the circumstance where there was no evidence that the charges would have simply been thrown out; because you can’t come to the court to bring charges, and you don’t have the basis on which you are in fact filing those charges, and that’s what occurred,” the Election Commissioner reasoned.
He said notwithstanding the fact that the DPP, in conjunction with the Guyana Police Force, took over the cases involving Lowenfield and Mingo, the evidence has not been forthcoming.
“In the circumstance, the Director of Public Prosecution reportedly has taken over the case but still no evidence. So what the Director of Public Prosecution is now doing, is doing the work that the persons who brought the charges should have done prior to bringing the charges,” Alexander submitted.
In the Court, he said the cases are steadily deferred due to the fact that the investigations against both Lowenfield and Mingo are incomplete. “And that for me is worrying, [because] the justice system has entertained a situation where private individuals have initiated a process which they themselves have been unable to produce and the DPP’s office for over a month now, itself has not produced any evidence,” Alexander said.
Since the declaration of the results of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections on August 2, a number of Election Officers have been charged in addition to the Chairman of the People’s National Congress (PNC/R), Volda Lawrence, and APNU+AFC Agent Carol Joseph, despite a lack of evidence.
In addition to Lowenfield and Mingo, the Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO), Roxane Myers and other GECOM employees including Duarte Hetsberger; Michelle Miller, Enrique Livan, Shefern February, Carolyn Duncan and Denise Cummings have been charged by the police.
The actions against these elections staff, Alexander posited, is simply malicious, and intended to discredit the officials and staff of the Elections Commission Secretariat ahead of the pending Election Petitions.
“Petitions have been filed and there is soon to have case management meeting and so for all intents and purposes, these matters as they are, seem to be outside of the jurisdiction of the court because [Article] 163 clearly says, that matters of this nature, are only brought after a petition, petition itself, having made a determination, that there are such matters to be dealt with,” Alexander reasoned.
He added: “I think that in the first instance, the very charges themselves [are] intended to smear these officers, and to have these officers removed so that other persons can now occupy those offices…”
The Election Commissioner accused the Guyana Police Force of conspiring with the PPP/C officials to coerce statements from GECOM staff, and when tactic fails to bear fruit, the employees are charged.
Maintaining that the current charges were filed to engineer their removal, Alexander recalled that in 2006 and 2011 concerns were raised over cases of electoral fraud, little was done to remedy the situation by the elections machinery or bring charges against the accused. At the time, the PPP/C was in power.
While noting that the current police investigation fails to address the missing documents that ought to have been in 47 ballot boxes from the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), Alexander submitted that during the hearing of the Petition the issue of missing documents and impersonation will more than likely surface.
The High Court has set October 22, 2020 for the Case Management Conference (CMC) for the Elections Petition Cases.
