Embattled Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield has withdrawn his application seeking to block government nominated Commissioners at the Guyana Election Commission (GECOM), Bibi Shadick and Sase Gunraj, from voting on a motion they tabled to have him dismissed.
High Court Judge, Justice Jo Ann Barlow, had set today for ruling on the application filed by Lowenfield but before the judge could hand down her decision, the CEO’s lawyer, Attorney Nigel Hughes, informed the court that his client wants to withdraw the case.
As such, Justice Barlow discontinued the case and discharged the temporary injunction that had been in effect barring Government-nominated election commissioners Bibi Shadick and Sase Gunraj from voting on the very motion they tabled calling for Lowenfield’s dismissal.
In June, the two government-nominated Commissioners tabled a motion containing 20 grounds on which they called for the immediate dismissal of Lowenfield.
Gunraj and Shadick- both lawyers- submitted that Lowenfield has breached his functions, duties, responsibilities, and obligations regarding the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Following the tabling of the motion, Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission Retired Judge Claudette Singh wrote to Lowenfield, asking him to show cause why he should not be dismissed.
The Chief Elections Officer was subsequently instructed by the GECOM’s Chairperson to proceed on annual leave pending investigations and a final decision on his employment.
Lowenfield, in his application to bar Shadick and Gunraj from deliberations of their own complaint against him, had argued it was in breach of the rules of natural justice.
He had argued too that their participation in the deliberations on their own complaint against him infected the deliberation of GECOM with bias.
Against this backdrop, he was asking the High Court to grant an order restraining Gunraj and Shadick from voting on the motion to dismiss him.
The Chief Elections Officer, Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers, and Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo are facing several electoral fraud charges for their alleged attempts to rig the March 2, 2020, General and Regional elections in favour of the APNU/AFC.
