The Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield, has submitted Matrices for the recount of the 10 Electoral Districts and a Summary of the Observation Reports for each district,
along with required attachments, pursuant to the gazette Order made by GECOM, under which the national recount of ballots was done.
The relevant portions of the Order read: “The matrices for the recount of the ten (10) Electoral Districts shall then be
tabulated by the Chief Election Officer and be submitted in a report, together with a summary of the observation reports for each District, to the Commission on or before 13th day of June 2020.”
Lowenfield has deemed the elections not credible, but the opposition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) says that based on the “relevant portions” of the Order, Lowenfield has “no power or authority or any mandate to offer a view, opinion or judgement of any type, either in the
Observation Report or the Matrices to be tabulated”.
As regards the Observation Report, his singular duty was to summarize the various Observation Reports and in respect of the Matrices, his sole duty was to aggregate the totals in the Matrices, the party said.
“In a clear and blatant violation of the Order, Lowenfield arrogated unto himself the role of an investigator, judge and executioner and 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 no one affected and applying principles only known to himself,” the party noted in a release.
The opposition said that Lowenfield “in one swipe” has acted ultra vires, in excess of and without authority, in violation of natural justice, in abrogation of the separation of powers doctrine, unlawfully, unconstitutionally and the
pronouncements that he has made are certainly null, void and of no effect.
