APNU, WIN call for recount after crushing defeat

…exercise begins today, to run nonstop on 25 workstations – GECOM

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Wednesday confirmed that it has approved a request from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) political party for a recount of Sub-District four of District four, with the recount scheduled to commence today at 08:00h. The electoral body noted that the recount exercise will proceed uninterrupted until completion using a total of 25 workstations.
As such, the Chief Election Officer, Vishnu Persaud, has written to all political parties informing them of the need for each party to provide at least one accredited election agent present for each workstation.
Presidential candidate for APNU, Aubrey Norton, as well as Presidential candidate for the We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) party, Unites Stated (US)-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed, took to social media on Wednesday to announce that their parties have begun to request recounts in various districts.
According to Norton, APNU has requested recounts in Regions Four (Demera-Mahaica), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) – regions where the party would lead in previous elections but took severe losses in the September 1 polls. WIN claimed that it had submitted a request for Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).
Speaking with Guyana Times on Wednesday evening, GECOM Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward stressed that thus far the only approved request was the one received from the APNU for the recount of Sub-District 4 in District 4. She confirmed that a request had also been made by the WIN party; however, she explained that the request was not made by the requisite person empowered to do so.
A recount can only be requested in writing by a political party’s counting agent or candidate to the count. Each political party is allowed a number of party agents in various categories, with the duly appointed election agent being the main one. Other party agents include the Assistant Election Agent, Counting Agent, Polling Agent, Alternate Polling Agent, Candidate to the Count and Candidate to the Poll.
Nonetheless, all of the political parties have until midday today to request recounts for any of the districts that declared results on Wednesday. All ten of the districts completed their official declarations on Wednesday.
According to the Regional Officers’ declared results, which were published on GECOM’s website on Wednesday, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has won eight of the districts, while WIN won two, and the APNU received less than 50 per cent of the votes that the party managed to garner in the 2020 elections.
The party took a massive hit in Region 10, where the party has always historically taken the win. After winning 19,169 votes in the General Election in that region in 2020, in this year’s declaration from that region the party has garnered a paltry 5334 votes. APNU was broadsided by WIN, which took the leading 10,458 votes. The PPP/C earned 4260 in this district.

Plummeted
However, the shock for APNU was Region Four, where the party had 116,941 in the General Elections in 2020 and has plummeted to 46,956 in 2025.
The PNC – which rebranded as the APNU in 2011 – has traditionally maintained solid support in the region, the most populous and politically significant region, encompassing Georgetown and its environs.
For the first time in the country’s history, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has now taken control of Region Four, earning almost twice as many votes as the APNU.
In the general elections, the PPP/C secured a remarkable 87,536 votes, while in the regional elections it received 87,018. This marks a notable increase from the 2020 elections, when the party garnered 80,920 votes in the general and 81,279 in the regional – reflecting a gain of over 6600 votes.
Region Seven was another district that the party won in 2020, at that time amassing 4813 votes in the General Elections. In Wednesday’s declaration, Region Seven has APNU with 276 votes, WIN took the region with 2562 votes, while the PPP/C earned 2872 votes, and the Alliance for Change was left with a paltry 56.
The party having shown low ratings during the entire campaign season, they struggled to get supporters to turn out to their public meetings and rallies. Describing the number as “implausible”, Norton said the problem is not the party’s inability to pull voters.
“We have seen in Region 4 something very implausible: that we will drop from 120,000-plus votes to 40,000. That has never happened in any election in the world. Also, in Region 10 we move from complete domination of the region to having lost the region. Something we have never seen in this country. We have asked for a recount in Regions Four, Seven and 10. We will continue to pursue these issues,” Norton declared in a video posted on the party’s social media page.
The loss has been all the more grave given that the party lost most of its constituencies to WIN, a party that was formed just three months ago. The APNU is a coalition party led by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), formed in 1957.