Incumbent Ali claims victory; GECOM to recount part of District Four votes

Last Updated on Wednesday, 3 September 2025, 23:54 by Writer

The incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) president Irfaan Ali has claimed victory in Monday’s general elections, based on the 10 district declarations by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

“It is going to be a substantial majority,” Dr Ali told Demerara Waves Online News. He said the PPPC was set to occupy 36 or 37 seats in the 65-seat National Assembly, having won 242,498 votes compared to closest rivals We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) with 109,066 votes and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) with 77,928. “We have a great majority and we are ready to take the country forward,” the President added.

Though the voters list has grown from 661,378 in 2020 t0 747,690 in 2025, there was a reduction in the total number of valid votes cast from 460,352 in 2020 to 438,560 in 2025.

The official declaration that was tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning has been pushed back to accommodate a recount of votes cast on the East Coast Demerara. Requested by APNU, that exercise is expected begin at 8 am on Thursday at GECOM’s Region Four Returning Office.

We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) had also planned to request a recount of all Region Four votes. WIN leader Azruddin Mohamed, when asked whether he would be entering the National Assembly as the new Opposition Leader, said “we are not thinking about that; we are thinking about going into government.”

APNU Chairman and presidential candidate Aubrey Norton did not immediately answer several phone calls.

The Alliance For Change (AFC), which had won five seats on its first electoral outing in 2006, this time around suffered a bruising defeat with a total of 3,610 votes from all 10 electoral districts. The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), led by People’s National Congress Reform defector Amanza Walton-Desir is set to enter the National Assembly with the highest remainder of votes totalling 4.226. The Simona Broomes-led Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) barely mustered 969 votes.

But APNU suffered the biggest electoral upset in Guyana’s political history, losing votes to WIN in almost all electoral districts. The figures show that APNU was badly beaten in its strongholds of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) and Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).

The declarations show that APNU was flogged severely in Region 10, which includes the hometown of APNU leader Aubrey Norton. In that region, his party won 5,334 votes in this year’s election compared to 19,169 in 2020 in coalition with AFC.

Mr Norton partly attributed that shift to the PPPC’s impoverishment of Region 10.

WIN, led by wealthy businessman Azruddin Mohamed, won 10,458 votes in Region 10, while AFC picked up 210 and the PPP, 4,260.

That declaration shows that the PPPC for the first time ever won a majority in Region Four with 87,536 votes, followed by APNU with 46,956 and WIN with 41,607. The FGM picked up 2,431,  Alliance For Change (AFC) 1,765 and Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) 497.

GECOM’s declaration states that 182,209 persons voted in Monday’s general election in Region Four.

In the 2020 general elections for Region Four, the PPPC won 80,920 votes; APNU+Alliance For Change coalition 116,941 out of a total of 203,742 votes that were cast then.

Though the PPPC boasted of awarding numerous small contracts to many mainly Afro-Guyanese contractors in Region 10, several campaign activities in that region and the defection of PNCR member Jermaine Figueira to the PPPC, the incumbent did not register a big gain over its 2020 election showing of 3,162.

The PPPC had hoped to win Region 10 from the PNCR-APNU for the first time.