Jun 06, 2020 News
On Day 31 of the National Recount exercise, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) managed to complete an additional 76 ballot boxes, with the opposition PPP gaining now 16,000 lead votes over the incumbent APNU+AFC. This now increases the total number of recounted ballot boxes to 2,172, with 167 remaining to be counted.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward, informed the media last evening that the distribution for boxes was 76 for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica). The recount for all other regions has been completed.
According to Ward, of the total number of Statements of Recount, 2,153were tabulated for the General Election and 2,133 for the Regional Election.
So far, the recount at its current stage has put the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in the lead with a total of 210,310 while the A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) accumulated a total of 193,939 votes. These are according to final totals as of Friday published by The Citizenship Initiative (TCI). Those figures show the PPP leading by 16,371 votes, 10,000 votes more than the previous day’s total
The GECOM spokeswoman was keen to note that the national recount could be completed by Sunday, paving the way for a national declaration for the recount exercise by, at least, next week Thursday.
Kaieteur News reported on Saturday last that GECOM extended the date of the exercise to June 13, thereby providing an additional 14 days to complete the recount. This decision was triggered after the Elections Commission failed to complete the recount in the initial 25 days.
In a Gazetted addendum, it stated that the recount shall be conducted continuously each day, including weekends and holidays, from 08:00hrs to 19:00hrs at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) at Liliendaal on the East Coast.
It additionally stated that the recount shall proceed with 12 workstations until its conclusion, an increase of two workstations from what was stated in the order.