Datadin withdraws as prosecutor in elections cases
Saying that he did not want to be a source of delays, attorney Sanjeev Datadin has withdrawn from serving as a prosecutor in the criminal proceedings against Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield.
“I am of the view that I will serve justice and the people of Guyana best by not providing a mechanism for delay or a target for baseless and time consuming letters and possible litigation,” Datadin wrote in an October 30th letter to Director of Public Prosecutions Shalimar Ali-Hack.
“In the circumstances, I humbly ask that you release me, fortwith, from the fiat to prosecute; so that the matters may proceed speedily and there be no further delay to the hearing of these matters,” he added.
Datadin wrote the letter in response to concerns raised by Lowenfield’s attorney, Nigel Hughes, with the DPP.
Police have charged Lowenfield with three counts of misconduct in public office and three counts of forgery stemming from his actions during the determination of the results of the March 2nd polls, the finalisation of which was delayed by five months.
Hughes has objected to Datadin’s participation due to his being a sitting Member of Parliament for the governing People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government.
He argued that to give Datadin the responsibility for the prosecution of a matter that is highly political in nature has the appearance of bias. “A person who is on the opposite side of the political fence or advocating a position that is hostile to the defendant ought not to be vested with this power,” he recently said, while adding that he believed that Lowenfield’s right to a fair trial has been adversely impaired.
However, Datadin has maintained bias would only arise if the court, which is hearing the matter, had an interest and he maintained that it had nothing to do with him being an MP as Hughes is contending.
In his letter to the DPP, Datadin stuck to his position that Hughes objections were frivolous. “I respectfully remind you that bias relates to the tribunal, in this case the Magistrate, and would not be a relevant
consideration in any event to my role as a prosecutor,” he wrote.
Datadin further noted that Hughes is on record representing all of the public officers of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that have been charged in recent months and that he was a chairman
Keith Lowenfield
of a political party and is the spouse of an opposition parliamentarian. “Curious that all of the public officers of the supposedly independent GECOM have chosen a lawyer with such strong political affiliations; who now makes the assertions of bias and conflict of interest,” he observed.