Dear Editor,
It has been over a month since the recount was concluded on June 8th. Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield’s straightforward task was to then summarise the results and report them to the commission. He was given five days to do something that he should have turned around in a couple of hours at the most. One month later, he has still not completed his assigned duty. At the last meeting on Tuesday July 15th, Lowenfield refused to submit his report or even say if he had prepared it. Troublingly, the consequential sanctions he faced for continued insubordination have not been applied. Neither has the task been reassigned to someone else as he had been forewarned.
Four formal letters covering what was required of him as well as verbal instructions were provided to Mr. Lowenfield. In addition, a number of meetings with generous time intervals between them have been held on the matter. Yet Lowenfield, with some assistance, continues to hold up the declaration of the election results. It has been 38 days to date since he was charged with the assignment. This exceeds the 33 days it took to do the recount of all ten Regions. It also exceeds the frustratingly unhurried 33 days between the time GECOM made the decision to conduct the recount and actually starting the recount. A partial chronicle of GECOM’s leisurely stroll is provided in the table.
By contrast, what was achieved by the High Court, CARICOM personnel and the CCJ in just 14 days is an incongruous counterpoint.
In just 3 days, the High Court granted an injunction, received submissions in regard to Mingo’s fraudulent Region 4 declaration and delivered its judgment. Cognisant of the urgency the high court worked on Saturday and Sunday.
Overnight four CARICOM Prime Ministers led by Barbados Prime Minister and CARICOM Chair Mia Mottley flew to Guyana and mediated the political impasse over two days. Then a high level CARICOM recount team was assembled from various islands; a plane was charted and they and flew in to Guyana in 1 day. GECOM, however, needed time to study the recount agreement, in the meanwhile during this window, Ulita Moore filed a challenged to the recount. Unable to undertake the mission they had rushed in for, the team left after 2 days.
The CCJ was also cognisant of the urgency. The CCJ responded and granted a stay on the Court of Appeal’s ruling on the Eslyn David matter within hours. CCJ’s President, Adrian Saunders, observed that everyone would want this matter to be over as soon as is practicably possible. “We are on a tight time-frame.” The court received oral and written submissions, studied the arguments, the constitution and precedents and delivered its judgment in one week.
The attached table gives brief recap of the achievements of these bodies in just 14 days in relation to the March 2nd election.
Everyone including the international community has been acutely aware of the bottleneck to democracy in GECOM itself. Many have called for the removal of Lowenfield and other tainted officials.
Yesterday the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said, “Today, I am announcing visa restrictions on the individuals responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Guyana. Immediate family members and such persons may also be subject to restrictions.”
Yours faithfully,
Ron Cheong
