GECOM completes vote recount; OAS observer mission hails elections

Last Updated on Friday, 5 September 2025, 23:55 by Writer

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Friday night completed the recounting of votes cast in sections of Districts/Regions Four and Five, clearing the way for the seven-member body to meet and possibly declare the winner of the September 1, 2025 general and regional elections.

GECOM spokeswoman Yolanda Ward said the results were late Friday night being tabulated.

After that, she said the Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud would prepare a report and present it to the Commission for its consideration.

The Commission, under the chairmanship of Retired Justice Claudette Singh, is scheduled to meet shortly before midnight to consider the report.

Head of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Electoral Observation Mission, Bruce Golding hailed Guyana’s electoral process on X, formerly Twitter.

“We want to express our deepest admiration for your commitment to democracy. We saw firsthand your peaceful participation and your patience in exercising your civic duty. It is this spirit that is the true foundation of a strong nation,” Mr Golding, a former Jamaica prime minister said.

The pending declaration of results are expected just mere hours after the GECOM Chairman informed A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) presidential candidate Aubrey Norton that she could not constitutionally give into his demands to annul the elections, conduct a forensic audit and hold fresh elections.

Justice Singh told him that he could take his electoral grievances to the High Court through an elections petition as stipulated by the Constitution.

Based on all 10 district declarations, President Irfaan Ali and his People’s Progressive Party Civic are unofficially the winner of the elections with about 55 percent of the popular vote.

The polls saw the People’s National Congress Reform-led APNU being displaced from the main opposition for the first time since 1992.

Mr Norton told Ms Singh that based on preliminary findings of the recounts that he had requested, there were several constitutional and legal violations.