THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Tuesday recorded a significant increase in the number of ballot boxes processed in a single day since the National Recount of the votes cast at the General and Regional Elections commenced.

At the close of operations at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Tuesday (Day 14), a total of 76 ballot boxes were processed: 18 from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 14 from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); 18 from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); 18 from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); and eight (8) from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). Overall, 718 ballot boxes from a total of 2,339 have been processed since the recount was initiated on May 6 by GECOM, under Article 162 of the Constitution of Guyana and Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act.

The increase in the processing of the ballot boxes is linked to the establishment of additional workstations. In its quest to accelerate the pace at which the ballots within the ballot boxes are being recounted, the Elections Commission, in keeping with the advice of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), established two additional workstations, taking the total number of workstations to 12.

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Executive Member Anil Nandlall, while pleased with the recorded increase moving up from a low of 25 ballot boxes on the very first day, told reporters that more boxes could have been processed if GECOM did not set 17:00hrs as a cut off time for the extraction of ballot boxes from the containers.

MORE COULD’VE BEEN DONE
“We still feel that more could have been done, because, again, the containers were closed at 5:30pm (17:30hrs), and that continues to be an unacceptable time for the closure of these containers,” Nandlall said. “If we want to complete the work within the time, we must work towards an extension of time, or certainly closing the containers at a minimum about 6:30pm,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

The Elections Commission, in one of its recent decisions, ruled that no box should be removed from the containers after 17:00hrs. The decision was taken out of concern that the teams operating at the level of the workstations may not be able to complete the recounting of votes within the ballot boxes before the close of operations at 19:00hrs.
Thus far, all of the ballot boxes from Region One (Barima-Waini) and Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) have been counted. There were a total of 99 ballot boxes from Region One, and 135 from Region Two.

Based on the votes recounted for Region One, the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) secured 3,909 votes in the General Elections, while the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) raked in 170, PPP/C 8002, People’s Republic Party (PRP) 24, and the United Republican Party (URP), six, of a total number of 12,111 valid votes cast. According to statistics coming out of GECOM’s Tabulation Centre at the ACCC, there were 328 rejected ballots and 41 spoilt ones.

In the Regional Elections, the APNU+AFC raked in 3,843 votes, while LJP secured 144; the PPP/C, 7, 996; and the URP 77 votes. There were a total of 12, 060 valid votes cast by a total of 12, 440 persons who had presented themselves on March 2 to vote in Region One.
Meanwhile, in Region Two, the APNU+AFC secured 7,340 votes in the General Elections, while the PPP/C raked in 18,785 votes. A New and United Guyana (ANUG) received 85 votes; Change Guyana (CG) 151; LJP 121; PRP, 57; The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) 18; and URP, 64. In total, there were 26,621 valid votes cast.

For the Regional Elections, the APNU+AFC received 7,290 votes, while its primary contender, the PPP/C, secured 18, 755. Among the smaller parties, Change Guyana (CG) raked in 216 votes, while LJP secured 135, and URP 95. There were a total of 26,491 valid voters in the Regional Elections for Region Two.

TOUGH TASK AHEAD
Meanwhile, while all of the Statements of Recount from Regions One and Two have been tabulated, there still remains a great task ahead of the GECOM as it seeks to complete the recount within a period of 25 days. In Region Three, only 178 Statements of Recount have been tabulated. Region Three has a total of 355 ballot boxes.

In Region Four, the country’s largest voting block, only 171 Statements of Recount have been tabulated from a total of 879 ballot boxes. In Region Five, 69 Statements of Recount have been processed from a total of 158 ballot boxes. In the case of Region Six, 12 Statements of Recount have been tabulated from a total of 378 ballot boxes, while in Region Seven, five (5) Statements of Recount have been tabulated from a total of 82 ballot boxes. Notably, the recounting of votes from Regions Six and Seven commenced this week.

The GECOM Secretariat, in accordance with the gazetted Order, will move to recount votes from Regions Eight, Nine and 10 upon the completion of the other regions. There are 55 ballot boxes from Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni); 73 from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 125 from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).