Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield
October 23 ,2020
Three private criminal charges previously filed against Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield were today withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Lowenfield’s attorney, Nigel Hughes, who disclosed this information to the media this morning, said his client now only faces the charges instituted by the police.
While the reason behind the withdrawal of the private criminal charges was not immediately clear, a source said the decision was taken due to the fact that the state has instituted similar charges against Lowenfield.
The charges against Lowenfield were filed by private citizens over his handling of the results from the March 2nd polls and were seen as intending to stop any declaration of his results.
Three private criminal charges were filed against Lowenfield by The New Movement (TNM) candidate Daniel Kanhai and People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) candidate Desmond Morian.
Kanhai’s complaint stated that between March 5th and June 23rd, 2020, Lowenfield conspired with a person or persons unknown to commit the common law offence of fraud by representing to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that tables attached to his June 23rd elections report accurately reflected the true results of the elections in order to materially alter the results, with intent to defraud as he knew the tabulation to be false.
The second private charge, for which People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) candidate Desmond Morian is the complainant, states while performing his duty as CEO, without lawful excuse or justification, Lowenfield willfully misconducted himself by ascertaining results of the elections “knowing the said results to be false.”
The third private charge, also brought by Morian, alleges that Lowenfield conspired with a person or persons unknown to commit fraud by representing to GECOM that the tables in his March 14th Elections Report reflected the true results of the elections, knowing that the tabulation was false, in order to materially alter the results of the elections.
