GECOM to review 25-days recount timeline tomorrow

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GECOM Chairperson, Justice Claudette Singh at the national recount venue - the Arthur Chung Conference Centre

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is expected to have a Commission meeting tomorrow where the Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh and the six Commissioners will review the 25-days timeline initially allocated for the national recount.

This is according to GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward who was providing an update to media operatives on Day Six of the countrywide recount.

As of 13:00hrs today, 19 ballot boxes were counted, bringing the total of boxes processed so far to 227.

There are 2,339 ballot boxes to be processed.

Some political parties have already raised concerns regarding whether GECOM will complete the exercise within 25 days.

“Based on their analysis, they do not believe the Commission will be able to meet the 25-day timeline…the Chair has indicated that that review will take place a Commission meeting tomorrow. After that meeting, we are hopeful that the commission will be able to provide some guidance as it relates to where we go from here,” Ward said.

She reasoned that the Commission will deliberate on whether the timeline will be extended or whether measures can be put in place to accelerate the process to meet the initial 25-day timeline.

Currently, ballot boxes from Regions 1, 2, 3 and 4 are being counted across ten work stations.

According to Ward, Region 1 might be the first to be completed, after which, the count will move on to Region 5.

There are 99 boxes to be counted from Region 1, 135 for Region 2, 355 for Region 3, 879 for Region 4, 158 for Region 5, 378 for Region 6, 82 for Region 7, 55 for Region 8, 73 for Region 9, and 125 for Region 10.

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