The National Recount exercise on Monday completed recounting 97 ballot boxes, bringing the total number of boxes recounted to 1836. There is a total of 503 boxes remaining to be recounted.
The outstanding electoral districts are Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), which has another 55 while Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) has 400 to be recounted. Region 10 has 48 more ballot boxes to be counted.
On Monday, Region Eight’s (Potaro-Siparuni) recount tabulation was certified. In the General Elections, the APNU/AFC received 2157 votes; PPP/C 2052; LJP 450 and TNM 11. In the Regional elections APNU/AFC received 2091 votes; PPP 2050; LJP 450 and URP 39. Six of the seven completed regions have since been certified with each of the contesting parties, with the exception of APNU/AFC.
The coalition had signed off on the Region One Certificate of Tabulation but refused to sign the others, instead protesting the use of the word ‘valid votes’ ascertained during the recount.
The completed regions have since allowed for counting stations to be reassigned.
Meanwhile, GECOM Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward on Monday also addressed the matter of unstamped ballots in light of consternations raised that members of the Joint Services were disenfranchised since their ballots that were supposed to be stamped before being intermixed on Election Day at Polling Stations.
Speaking with reporters in the makeshift media centre on the sidelines of the recount venue—Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) — Ward related that of the results certified thus far, it was discovered that 1536 ballots had been rejected for General Elections while Regional Elections votes accounted for 1927 rejected ballots.
