Lowenfield faces two more elections fraud charges

– Called into CID along with Myers

Jun 09, 2021 News, Source - https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...tions-fraud-charges/

CEO of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield

Chief Elections Officer (CEO), of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield, will be facing two more elections fraud charges.

The information was relayed to this media house after Lowenfield was yesterday called into the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at Eve Leary, Kingston, along with Roxanne Myers, the Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO).

They both arrived at the CID headquarters sometime after 15:00 hrs. yesterday with their respective lawyers.

Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum, said that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) would be instituting two additional charges of conspiracy to defraud against Keith Lowenfield. He added that Clairmont Mingo, the Returning Officer (RO) for Region Four, was also called in and today the media will be updated on whether or not he and Meyers will face additional charges.

Region Four RO, Clairmont Mingo.

Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo are currently facing multiple criminal charges related to alleged attempts to rig the March 2, General and Regional Election held in 2020.

Lowenfield was slapped with three counts of misconduct in public office and three counts of forgery, while Myers was slapped with two counts of misconduct in public office. Mingo also faces four charges alleging that he misconducted himself in public office by failing to disclose the number of votes that were counted during the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.

Apart from those charges, Mingo was jointly charged with former APNU+AFC Coalition Minister and current Chair of the People’s National Congress, Volda Lawrence, as well. The joint charge alleges that on March 5, 2020, in Georgetown, with intent to defraud the public, they uttered a certain forged document, that is to say, a report purporting to be a true declaration of all votes cast in District Four for the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, knowing said report to be forged.

GECOM’s DCEO, Roxanne Myers.

He also faced another joint charge with Coalition activist, Carol Smith-Joseph, which alleges that on March 13, 2020, they uttered a forged document purporting to be a true report of all votes cast in the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, while knowing that the report was forged. The trio is currently out on bail.

It is unclear at the moment as to what led police to institute two more fraud charges against Lowenfield, and why they requested the presence of Myers and Mingo at CID as well.

Recently however, Kaieteur News had reported that the controversial Region Four Statements of Poll (SoPs) for the March 2, elections were handed over to investigators at CID.

The handing over of the documents followed an order by the Chief Justice (Ag), Roxane George-Wiltshire, for them to be turned over to police by the Supreme Court’s Registrar, Sueanna Lovell.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, and the Commissioner of Police (Ag), Nigel Hoppie, had filed an application in the High Court for the SoPs and the Statement of Recounts (SoRs) to be released to investigators.

They had requested the elections documents in order to facilitate a fair hearing for the charges against the key GECOM officials.

Granger can't bail them, it's JAIL time.

Source

June 9 ,2021

By Lincoln Lewis
News that there are likely to be more charges against Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield; and Deputy Chief Election Officer, Roxanne Myers suggest the Guyana Police Force has not done a good job from the beginning of laying charges against these persons or is acting on political direction. Some are inclined to think it’s a combination intended to harass and defame these persons.

What is also striking is that as the Police is seeking to lay more charges, the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has at the same time asked Mr. Lowenfield and Ms. Myers to show cause why they should not be dismissed. This is based on motions brought by the People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPP/C)- nominated Commissioners. Even to the casual observers it seems as though there is a move to remove these two officers, regardless of. And it would appear that if fair means does not work then foul means will do. If this is not the intent of the Force, GECOM or Government then they must prove otherwise by their actions.
In light of what is unfolding it would be difficult to dissuade  reasonable questions, whether the police, GECOM and PPP/C government are serious about pursuing justice in the 2020 Election or bent on creating scapegoats. Mr. Lowenfield and Mr. Myers, while ultimately the head and deputy of GECOM, and it could be argued the buck stops at them, revelation from the Recount showed what a tangled web some weaved when they seek to deceive.

For instance, in many strongholds of the PPP/C and in the areas where GECOM declared in their favour there were massive irregularities.

The Returning Officer for Region One did not comply with the legal requirements in accounting for the ballots in the boxes. Another area where more than 10,000 votes were tallied, i.e. is the lower East Coast Demerara which is a PPP/C stronghold there were problems. In this area 47 ballot boxes had no documents except the ballot. Those boxes were managed by Presiding Officers. Corresponding in the Opposition strongholds these irregularities did not arise.

The stated are two instances among many. Not one of the Presiding Officers for those 47 voting stations or the Returning Officer for Region One has been questioned by the police. At the most basic of deduction it would appear that there is no attempt to question, much less charge them,  in an effort to pursue justice for what happened in the 2020 Election.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has said that Guyana will not have another election with Mr. Lowenfield or Ms. Myers in their present positions. He seems unbothered about the 47 Presiding Officers and Returning Officer of Region One, to mention a few.  A pattern is emerging and it is not enticing for achieving justice with regards to the 2020 Election. Given the prevailing scenario, the Chairperson of GECOM, PPP/C-nominated Commissioners, the Guyana Police Force and Government would find it difficult to convince a significant section of Guyanese, based on the aforementioned, that they are pursuing justice.

@Django posted:

Source

June 9 ,2021

By Lincoln Lewis
News that there are likely to be more charges against Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield; and Deputy Chief Election Officer, Roxanne Myers suggest the Guyana Police Force has not done a good job from the beginning of laying charges against these persons or is acting on political direction. Some are inclined to think it’s a combination intended to harass and defame these persons.

Simply an opinion expressed in the OP-ED section of the news-media on the matter which can be good, bad, indifferent, etc..

@Former Member posted:

Simply an opinion expressed in the OP-ED section of the news-media on the matter which can be good, bad, indifferent, etc..

Is wuh kinda bush tea yuh drink deh Mr. DG?

@Former Member posted:

Simply an opinion expressed in the OP-ED section of the news-media on the matter which can be good, bad, indifferent, etc..

Shaddow-boxing has turned you utterances to vague, meaningless nonsense. What happen, missing your Backdam buddies?

@Former Member posted:

Simply an opinion expressed in the OP-ED section of the news-media on the matter which can be good, bad, indifferent, etc..

DG, you are giving Lincoln Lewis way too much credit. In fact this is just incompetence on his part. If he had only managed to take a few more minutes to extract his head out from his confirmation bias he may have reached the conclusion that the additional charges of fraud were based on new evidence obtained from the recently released Statement of Polls.

Maybe he would have also considered the reasons the police did not pursue the election fraud investigations or charges against the PPP are exactly the same reasons that the Chief Justice denied the election petition. By the way, election petitions are the instruments for addressing the issues Lincoln Lewis addressed. Clearly the courts did not think the issues were of merit.

As I said before, I think Trump got his playbook from these guys. Claim election fraud no matter what the evidence and the courts say. Also make sure you have enough knuckleheads in the press to push the vast conspiracy theory.

Correct Locutus --  your views are noted.

These are three black people who has no trust in any PPP government. They have witnessed and lived through its first 23 years after being back.

Like all revolutions, it takes only one mind. Whose mind was it, Lowenfield, Myers or Mingo. However, the conspiracy was in unision. They are the faces we see and hear of, but anyone attentive to the events would know they were many more involved.

If the PPP is going to hang them for sedition, then they will be martyrs like their kins over the centuries since they were brougt to colonies of Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara.

To heal a nation takes great courage, sad, the PPP lil men and women have little minds. Visionless Indoes.

@seignet posted:

These are three black people who has no trust in any PPP government. They have witnessed and lived through its first 23 years after being back.

Like all revolutions, it takes only one mind. Whose mind was it, Lowenfield, Myers or Mingo. However, the conspiracy was in unision. They are the faces we see and hear of, but anyone attentive to the events would know they were many more involved.

If the PPP is going to hang them for sedition, then they will be martyrs like their kins over the centuries since they were brougt to colonies of Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara.

To heal a nation takes great courage, sad, the PPP lil men and women have little minds. Visionless Indoes.

Your flippant use of the words "revolutions" and "martyrs" try to convey that the actions of Lowenfield et al. were somehow high minded and based in some moral and ethical compass. Well the truth is it was a blatant attempt to subvert the will of the people in order to facilitate a power grab.

An analog for your argument is a case of someone who sets fire to a house because he has a grievance with the home owner. Your solution is to not prosecute the arsonist in order to facilitate the healing between the parties. I am not sure you will support this course of action.

Similarly I don’t think you can heal the nation by ignoring the attempts to subvert the will of the people by rigging the election. Where does it stop? What if you had a bloody coup attempt akin to the Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990. Do you let that go in order to heal the nation? Or lets consider recent events in the US. Should the US Justice Department ignore the January 6th insurrectionists for the sake of healing the nation?

What was attempted last year wasn’t a minor infraction of election laws it was a blatant coup attempt. Look around the world, the regression of democracies are rarely happening with an armed coup but instead by a thousand cuts over time (Myanmar being the most immediate exception). This is most visibly happening in Hungary and Poland, however you can also look to the US which was supposedly fortified by a system of checks and balances. One recent example was illustrated by Trump’s actions to pressure Georgia’s Secretary of State to “find” him the necessary votes so that he can win (by the way he is now under criminal investigation by the Georgia Attorney General for this action). The Senate failed to convict and remove him from office so Republican state legislatures are now emboldened to pass legislation that gives partisan politicians the right to determine the outcome of an election despite what the vote count says. No different than what Lowenfield and cohorts attempted. Prosecution is necessary to put a stop to the thousand cuts to democracy.

Guyana has been in the dark ages since the British gave it up. We struggle to find ourselves as a unified country. Attempts are constantly made to marginalize one race depends who has the government.

It is sad, that one race of people would find it necessary to go to the extremes of stealing an election because they fear for their race. The past has its history.

What took place at GECOM is part of what happens in a country in the dark ages, first there is tryanny, then the oligarhs and then democracy.

So far, it is a see-saw between the oligarhs and tyranny.

I cannot see democracy in the horizon, ignorance prevails in one section and arrogance in the other. The moderates are afraid to speak, afraid to make that change bcz the fear of mistrust.

@Locutus posted:

Similarly I don’t think you can heal the nation by ignoring the attempts to subvert the will of the people by rigging the election. Where does it stop?

It would seem that your position is that cheating at the 2020 general election was done by APNU-AFC only

What has so convinced you that the 47 boxes with missing statutory documents, and other irregularities identified, gives the PPP a free pass not to be called-out as cheaters at that election?

Why the lies?

Are you going to use the argument that the international community said it's so, so it must be so? Let me tell you, the APNU-AFC supporters think otherwise and that is based on what they saw and knowledge of who they're dealing with. This is so whether you like it or not!

Let's see where Guyana goes from here

There is statistical evidence that the PPP rigged the 2020 elections.  This is especially so in Region 4.  There has been no plausible explanation for the pattern of voting being different in the most vote rich region of the country.  It is also possible that after being caught unprepared for the PPP vote manipulation the Coalition reacted clumsily in trying to fix the outcome.  However, the courts are yet to pronounce on the legitimacy of the elections and on the criminal charges against Lowenfield et al.  What remains true is that democracy is not only about free and fair elections.  It is government of the people, by the people and for the people.  It is not government of some people , by some people and for some people.  Guyana does not have democracy right now.  Jagdeo doesn't believe in it and Ali is too dumb to understand it.  And, to answer someone seeking the ethical grounding of the alleged Coalition's desperate move to right the results:  go and read about consequentialist ethics and then we could have a discussion. 

@Totaram posted:

There is statistical evidence that the PPP rigged the 2020 elections.  This is especially so in Region 4.  There has been no plausible explanation for the pattern of voting being different in the most vote rich region of the country.  It is also possible that after being caught unprepared for the PPP vote manipulation the Coalition reacted clumsily in trying to fix the outcome.  However, the courts are yet to pronounce on the legitimacy of the elections and on the criminal charges against Lowenfield et al.  What remains true is that democracy is not only about free and fair elections.  It is government of the people, by the people and for the people.  It is not government of some people , by some people and for some people.  Guyana does not have democracy right now.  Jagdeo doesn't believe in it and Ali is too dumb to understand it.  And, to answer someone seeking the ethical grounding of the alleged Coalition's desperate move to right the results:  go and read about consequentialist ethics and then we could have a discussion.

These liars think that people are stupid, that if they repeat the lie enough that APNU-AFC cheated and the PPP didn't, it will stick.

I say good luck to the liars, they play a dangerous game in a place like Guyana

Dude, what the PPP is doing right now is that dangerous game you speak of

I do not think armed conflict is possible in Guyana, but ethnic clashes from time to time.

@cain posted:

Dude, what the PPP is doing right now is that dangerous game you speak of

They humiliate and openly laugh in the face of those they don't consider their supporters, all on the back of the lie that they won an election without cheating and help from others

@seignet posted:

I do not think armed conflict is possible in Guyana, but ethnic clashes from time to time.

I certainly hope it never comes to that but who knows where this will all end

Nigel Hughes give time-stamp on Lowenfield, myers and Mingo court appearance

June 11 ,2021

Source

Prominent lawyer, Nigel Hughes who is representing several high-ranking  GECOM officials who are charged with electoral fraud in relation to March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections have responded to media reports about his clients failing to attend court on Wednesday.

Below is the statement issued on Thursday evening by counsel:

Several media outlets have reported that Mr. Keith Lowenfield, Ms. Roxanne Myers, and Mr. Clairmont Mingo failed to attend the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on June 9, 2021, before Her Worship Ms. Sherdel Issacs.

The following is the chronology of events which has led to the misrepresentation of the circumstances leading to the issuance of a summons to attend court for the above persons.

Mr. Keith Lowenfiled and Ms. Roxanne Myers were invited to attend the CID Eve Leary on Tuesday the 8th June 2021 at 3.30 PM. This invitation was issued by Senior Superintendent Mitchell Ceaser via Nigel Hughes in his capacity as Attorney-at-law to Mr. Lowenfield and Ms. Myers.

In keeping with the request, both Mr. Lowenfield and Ms. Myers attended the CID HQ  at 3.30 PM where they were informed in a video recorded interview of the intention of the Guyana Police Force to file two criminal charges of conspiracy to defraud the electors of Guyana between March 2nd, 2020 and August 2nd, 2020.

At the conclusion of the video-recorded interviews,  Mr. Nigel Hughes specifically inquired of Mr. Mitchell Ceaser when would Mr. Lowenfield and Ms. Myers be required to attend court. Mr. Ceaser indicated that he would contact Mr. Hughes to inform him of the date and time as the charges had not yet been filed.

Mr. Ceaser then requested the presence of Mr. Mingo the following day and it was agreed that he would attend the CID HQ at 8.15 AM the following day.

On Wednesday the 9th June 2021 at 8.15 AM,  Mr. Clairmont Mingo attended the CID HQ with his Attorney-at-law. He was informed in a video-recorded interview that the Guyana Police Force intended to institute two charges against him of conspiring with Keith Lowenfield, Roxanne Myers, Volda Lawrence,  Carol Joseph, and others to defraud the electors of Guyana in the 2020 national and regional elections.

After the conclusion of the interview,  Mr. Hughes inquired of the officers when would Mr. Mingo be required to attend court. He was informed that they were unable to say as the charges had not yet been filed. Mr. Mingo then left Georgetown to return to his home in Beladrum, West Coast Berbice.

At 10.52 AM, Mr. Ceasar called Nigel Hughes and asked that all three persons attend court at 11.00 AM. Mr. Hughes informed Mr. Ceasar that it would be impossible as  Mr. Mingo was on his way back to West Coast Berbice and it may be difficult to attend court in eight minutes.

He further indicated to Mr. Ceasar that he would have to contact Mr. Lowenfield and Ms. Myers to inform them of the requirement to attend court in eight minutes which at that point would be impossible in Georgetown.

When informed Mr. Mingo immediately started his return to Georgetown. At 10.55 AM,  Mr. Ceasar called Mr. Hughes again and informed him that the matter had been fixed for 12.00.

At 11.45,  Mr. Mingo and Mr. Lowenfield were standing outside of Georgetown Magistrates’ Court  3 awaiting the 12.00 hearing when the court prosecutor informed Mr. Hughes that the matter was called at 11.00 AM and was adjourned to the 29th June 2021 as there was no evidence that the defendants had been informed. He indicated that the Magistrate has ordered that a summons be issued to the defendants.

It was indicated to the Prosecutor in the presence of another Senior Police Officer that the request to attend court was received at 10.52 AM. Ms. Roxanne Myers attended the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court 3 at 11.50 AM.

The only notification to attend court at 11.00 AM was issued by way of a telephone call at 10.52 AM to Counsel for Mr. Lowenfield, Ms. Myers, and Mr. Mingo.