VOTING in Region Three kept to traditional outcome, and saw the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) maintaining its grip on the region where it won 66.1 per cent of the 72,608 valid votes cast in the General Elections in the region.

The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) received 23, 811 to also maintain its over 30 per cent share in the Region. The results mean that the PPP/C will preserve its allocation of two of the Region’s three geographical seats in the 65 seat National Assembly. The party will also sustain majority seat in the 27 seat Regional Democratic Council (RDC).

In the Regional Elections, the PPP/C cleared 47,890 votes while the APNU took 23,824 votes. The results were officially declared on Wednesday morning by the region’s Returning Officer, Mohanlall Jagdeo, at his office at Vreed-en-Hoop, in the presence of agents for both parties, as well as observers from the European Union.

Elections agent for the APNU+AFC, Aubrey Norton, shared, however, that his party has already written Jagdeo requesting a recount of the entire region’s ballot boxes. “At the party level, we have agreed for a recount of Region Three, giving reasons for it in the letter; I just delivered the letter to him [Jagdeo]. Elections in this region went smooth but we always said with the kind of [Official Electors] list there was room for skullduggery. We do believe everything didn’t go fair,” Norton said as he exited the RO’s building on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Assistant Elections Agent for the Party, John Adams, had indicated that the party had concerns about two polling stations on the West Coast Demerara following allegations of Disciplined Services ballots not being counted and another of spoilt ballots being counted. In the case of the uncounted Disciplined Services ballots, Adams said that according to reports, a Presiding Officer (PO) at a polling station in Vergenoegen failed to stamp, intermix and count Disciplined Services ballots assigned to that polling station. Those ballots, Adams said, were left in a separate envelope and never counted.

The other case alleges that a PO at a Parika polling station assigned a number of spoilt ballots to the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C). Following the declaration of elections results, parties are afforded a period during which they can request, and must be afforded a recount of ballots.

PPP Election agent, Priya Manickchand, meanwhile, thanked the Region for continuing to place their trust in that party. She said that while the APNU+AFC requested recount should be accommodated, as is provided for by law, nothing could change the significant lead that the party enjoys in the Region.

“The PPP/C has won the Region by in excess of 24,000 votes; we are very pleased. The people of Region Three have spoken and their voices have been heard which they have a right to do; we’re very glad that that happened,” Manickchand commented.
Though percentage in the region for both of the major political parties remained the same, both parties saw significant increases of votes received. In 2015, the PPP/C received 40,480 votes in the General Elections, gaining 7,375 more votes at last Monday’s elections. The APNU+AFC, in 2015, had 20,913 votes, seeing an increase of 2,898 more votes this year.

A total of 100,758 persons were scheduled to vote in the Region, which saw a turnout of 72 per cent.

In a surprising turn of events for the region, however, Change Guyana, headed by hotelier, Robert Badal took over as the third most popular individual political party in the region, taking 318 votes in General Elections and 388 in the Regional elections. In the General Elections, the party came just ahead of A New and united Guyana (ANUG), headed by former PPP/C executive member, Ralph Ramkarran, which had 310 votes. ANUG did not contest in the Regional Elections.

However, ANUG’s votes will be combined and counted jointly with the votes of The New Movement (TNM), which received 56 votes, which will place the partnership ahead of Change Guyana. The Regions native party, the United Republican Party (URP) found itself pushed out from its fourth place by a number of newcomers. With 43 votes, the party finished last of the eight parties on the Region’s General Elections ballot. With 179 votes, the party finished fourth in the Regional Elections, where the religious People’s Republic Party (PRP) finished with 151. PRP had 135 votes in the Regional Elections. The only other contesting party in the Region, The Citizen’s Initiative (TCI), also failed to make any significant mark in this Region, taking a paltry 80 votes in the General Elections; they did not contest the Regional Elections.