Recount up by 17 boxes at 2pm on Friday

A total of 17 ballot boxes were counted by 2 pm on Friday as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) pushes ahead with the national recount of votes cast in the March 02, 2020 elections.

The recount started on Wednesday with 65 ballots boxes being completed at the close of Thursday. This now brings the total figure of boxes completed to 82 thus far.

There are 2,339 ballot boxes to be counted in the ten electoral districts; the recount started with Districts One to Four with ten workstations.

The update was provided by GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward to members of the media camping outside the Arthur Chung Convention Center.

Ward said the exercise was moving ahead with efforts being made by the Commission to ensure efficiency.

Ward said District One with just about 90 ballot boxes will likely be the first region to be completed to allow for District Five to commence.

The Commission had initially given itself 25 days, including weekends and holidays, to complete the recount but keeping that deadline seems highly unlikely if the exercise continues at the current pace.

Tabulation is also being done at the end of every day for 90 minutes simultaneously with the counting.

With 82 Statements of Recount completed, only 23 have so far been tabulated.

Party agents for the opposition PPP noted that they are seeking to have an extension of the allotted tabulation time since the inclusion of observation reports in the tabulation process was causing delays.

Ward said the Commission is currently meeting to address those issues.