{"id":32398,"date":"2014-03-14T13:12:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T17:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/?p=32398"},"modified":"2014-03-14T13:12:47","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T17:12:47","slug":"gecom-picks-lowenfield-as-new-chief-election-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/gecom-picks-lowenfield-as-new-chief-election-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"GECOM picks Lowenfield as new Chief Election Officer"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_32399\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32399\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/GECOM-boss.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-32399\" alt=\"Newly-appointed GECOM Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield\" src=\"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/GECOM-boss-225x300.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/GECOM-boss-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/GECOM-boss.jpg 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Newly-appointed GECOM Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Keith Lowenfield, a former Guyana Defence Force Officer, was unanimously appointed Chief Election Officer on Wednesday, replacing Gocool Boodhoo who was let go by the Elections Commission when his contract expired nearly two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The substantive Deputy Chief Election Officer, Calvin Benn, who had also applied for the post, earlier this week withdrew his application, virtually clearing the way for Lowenfield. In a statement, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said Benn was not interviewed because he tendered a letter dated March 10, 2014, regretfully informing the entity that he was no longer interested in the post and, by way of said letter, was withdrawing his application for the post. \u201cBenn submitted in his letter that he had engaged in some serious reflection during a recent period of illness and has concluded that it would be unwise for him to compete for the position of Chief Election Officer,\u201d the GECOM statement read.\u00a0 Further, he also expressed regrets to the Commission for any inconvenience which might have been caused by his change of heart.<\/p>\n<p>GECOM said its full membership on Wednesday \u201cdecided unanimously to the appointment of Mr Keith Lowenfield to the position of Chief Election Officer and Commissioner of National Registration\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 The decision was taken at a special meeting of GECOM in the Commission\u2019s Boardroom.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission\u2019s decision has brought to an end a very lengthy and meticulous process: (i) advertising the vacancy locally and overseas; (ii) shortlisting suitable candidates from the 14 applications received; (iii) determining procedures for the interviews; and (iv) conducting the interviews, GECOM said in its statement.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 14 applications received, four were deemed by the Commission to have met the criteria and were shortlisted to be interviewed.\u00a0 They were from Danville Davidson of Jamaica; Savitri Singh of Washington, U.S.A.; Benn; and Lowenfield. Davidson and Singh were interviewed via Skype.<\/p>\n<p>Well wishes<\/p>\n<p>Immediately following the Commission\u2019s decision, Lowenfield was summoned to the meeting and was informed accordingly. GECOM Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally took the opportunity to congratulate Lowenfield on being appointed to head the Commission\u2019s Secretariat and expressed his confidence in his ability to honour the responsibilities of the position of Chief Election Officer, the GECOM statement read. \u201cAll of the Commissioners also took the opportunity to congratulate Mr Lowenfield and wish him well in his new position,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to the sentiments expressed by Dr Surujbally and the Commissioners, Lowenfield thanked them individually and collectively for the confidence that the Commission has placed in him through its decision to appoint him to the position. In so doing, he undertook to carry out the relevant duties to the best of his abilities without fear, favour, and discrimination, the GECOM statement said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) congratulated Lowenfield even before GECOM made an official announcement of his appointment. \u201cAPNU is confident that during Mr Lowenfield\u2019s tenure as Chief Election Officer, there will be non-controversial and properly administered elections,\u201d the opposition coalition said in a terse statement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Keith Lowenfield, a former Guyana Defence Force Officer, was unanimously appointed Chief Election Officer on Wednesday, replacing Gocool Boodhoo who was let go by the Elections Commission when his contract expired nearly two years ago. The substantive Deputy Chief Election Officer, Calvin Benn, who had also applied for the post, earlier this week withdrew his application, virtually clearing the way for Lowenfield. In a statement, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said Benn was not interviewed because he tendered a letter dated March 10, 2014, regretfully informing the entity that he&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":32399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/GECOM-boss.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32400,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32398\/revisions\/32400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}