Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward tonight said that ballots contained in 43 boxes were counted today, at the end of Day Three of the recount of the votes cast in the March General and Regional Elections.
She reported that 10 boxes were counted for Region One (Barima/Waini); 10 for Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam); 11 for Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara);and 12 for Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica).
This takes the total number of boxes processed since Wednesday to 108.
There are now 2,231 boxes left to be counted in 22 days.
The PRO said also, that the Commission, in its deliberations today, decided that it will consider the request made for the tabulation of the votes to commence earlier than 5pm.
“[The Commission] decided that they will consider the request for that process to start maybe an hour earlier. By tomorrow, we’ll be able to really say directly to the stakeholders whether we will commence that exercise from 4pm,” she said.
She noted that at the end of today’s tabulation exercise for the General Election, some 74 out of the 108 Statements of Recount were tabulated.
Ward said that by tomorrow, the recount and tabulation will be in sync.
Her comments come at a time when many party agents and at least one observer have said that the pace of the tabulation process needed to improve so as not to eliminate the backlog.
The conduct of a daily tabulation is not provided for in the Recount Operationalisation Order gazetted by the Commission. In fact, the order speaks to the tabulation being done at the end of the recount of each Electoral District.
Ward noted this, but said that the Commission’s decision for daily tabulation came from recommendations made by stakeholders.
