Motion filed in Appeal Court to stop Lowenfield’s report to GECOM Chair

Attorney-at-Law Mayo Robertson, on behalf of his client, Eslyn David, has asked the Court of Appeal to prevent the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)’s Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield from submitting a report of the recount results to the Chair, Justice Claudette Singh; and in so doing, prevent her from declaring the results of the National Recount.

Those results place the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) well ahead of the governing coalition, A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

The filing was done Thursday, just as Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield was supposed to submit the report to the Elections

Commission. No injunction was granted to halt the submission of that report, but Lowenfield refused to submit it anyway.

The Appeal Court heard the matter Friday, against the respondents, the Chief Elections Officer; the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice Claudette Singh; the Guyana Elections Commission; and the Attorney General of Guyana, Basil Williams.

The notice of motion purports that the Court is to take up the exclusive jurisdiction conferred upon it by Article 177(4) of the Constitution of Guyana, to determine the question of the validity of the elections. The motion seeks to compel the court to make a declaration that GECOM failed to act in accordance with the recount order, in that it “failed to determine a final credible count and or the credibility of the result” of the March 2 polls.

The coalition’s perspective on a “final credible count” of the election had became evident when it supported Lowenfield’s insertion in his first report on the recount, a suggestion that GECOM should discard more than 269,619 of the 460,352 valid votes cast in the elections. Based on trumped up claims of irregularities and voter impersonation, Lowenfield’s revision would give the coalition a 68,000-vote lead and a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

(Kaieteur News)