Vote recount continues, final declaration now tentatively Saturday or Sunday; WIN’s Region Four request rejected

Last Updated on Thursday, 4 September 2025, 23:26 by Writer

A recount of general and regional election votes cast on the East Coast Demerara and part of Region Five (Mahaica-West Berbice) is expected to continue throughout the weekend, now tentatively pushing final declaration of results to Saturday or Sunday, a senior Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) official said.

GECOM workers, in the presence of party agents, said that by 5 pm on Thursday just over 90 of the 395 boxes in sub-district four of District/Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) were counted. The official said that due to occasional delays and interruptions, the rate of counting is estimated at 10 to 12 boxes an hour.

Also at the request of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), GECOM has agreed to recount 77 of 193 boxes in Region Five.

Asked about a timeline for completion, the official said “we’re going into the weekend” which could see a final declaration of the results of the September 1 general and regional elections by Saturday or Sunday.

The GECOM official said there were no major variations in the numbers that were emerging from the recount.

While APNU Chairman and presidential candidate, Aubrey Norton on Wednesday night said his party had also asked for recounts in Region 7 (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) GECOM spokeswoman Yolanda Ward earlier on Thursday said GECOM received none.

Ms Ward said We Invest in Nationhood’s (WIN) request for an entire recount of Region Four was not approved because it was submitted by an election agent, a portfolio not authorised to do so. She said that request should have been submitted by a counting agent or a candidate to the poll. “Therefore, they rendered it invalid and it was not approved,” she said. The GECOM spokeswoman said WIN did not have another opportunity to submit the recount request because the statutory time of 12 pm on the following day after district declarations were made has been passed.

In Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Mr Norton said it was “implausible” that his party was declared as having won 87,536 votes in contrast to 116,941 votes in 2020 when APNU had been in a coalition with the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

In Region 10, APNU won 5,334 votes in this year’s election compared to 19,169 in 2020 in the coalition with AFC.

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

In Region Seven, APNU was declared as having won 983 votes in the 2025 general elections in contrast to 4,813 in 2020. WIN won 5,098 and the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) 3,577.

As day one of the recount dragged on in the compound of GECOM’s headquarters on High Street, Kingston, there was gradual build-up of supporters from WIN, PPP and to a lesser extent APNU outside the recount venue.