Three days after the national recount exercise commenced, a total of 108 ballot boxes were counted at the end of Friday as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) pushes ahead with the recount of the March 02, 2020 elections.
The recount started on Wednesday where 25 boxes were initially processed; on Thursday an additional 40 boxes were counted with 43 being counted by the end of Friday.
On Friday, ten ballot boxes were counted in Region One; ten from Region Two; eleven from Region Three and twelve from Region Four.
This now brings the total figure of boxes completed to 108 thus far; this is just about 5% of the 2,339 boxes to be reopened and counted in the recount process.
But these counts are being done with allegations of discrepancies on a daily basis.
APNU+AFC nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander claimed that there was a one box found to have more votes than the number of persons crossed off as voted.
Alexander said this amounts to a serious discrepancy which must be addressed by GECOM.
But his colleague Commissioner Sase Gunraj said he believed there may be an explanation for this. He said when the process is completed, it is the number of votes in that box that matters.
“Those votes are in the box so it must have come from somewhere, where did it come from?” Gunraj questioned.
Also weighing in on the issue was People’s Progressive Party Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali, who sought to explain that there may have been votes in a box that didn’t come from the persons on the list.
He said votes could have come from the discipline services votes that were intermixed or from persons who voted with certificates of employment.
Ali maintained that the numbers were already signed off by stakeholders and there must be a valid explanation.
There were several other claims of discrepancies by party agents who participated in the process.
