By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
April 6, 2001

The Elections Commission yesterday received and approved the re-tabulated results of the March 19 polls and allocated seats in the National Assembly and on the regional councils to the parties that contested the elections based on those results.

Chief Justice, Desiree Bernard, on March 31, had ordered that the results announced by the Chief Election Officer(ag) Gocool Boodoo on March 23, be tallied and declared in accordance with Section 84(1) of the Representation of the People Act.

The returning officers commenced the recounting of the results from the statements of poll (SOPs) of the various polling divisions in their regional constituencies on Saturday. They completed the exercise on Wednesday and submitted the results (see page 17) with the supporting SOPs to Boodoo. After checking the re-tabulation, Boodoo yesterday advised the commission of the results at a meeting specially convened for this purpose.

Commission Chairman, Maj Gen (rtd) Joe Singh told Stabroek News yesterday that Boodoo has been asked to inform the parties of the results and the seat allocations. He has also been asked to request that they extract the names of their candidates to sit in the National Assembly and on the regional councils and that they submit this information by April 12, to allow for its publication in the Official Gazette in accordance with Section 69 of the Representation of the People Act.

The re-tabulated results now show the PPP/Civic with 210,013 votes, allocated 34 seats in the National Assembly including the 11 regional constituency seats it won.

The PNC REFORM has 165,866 votes and has been allocated 27 seats in the National Assembly including the 13 it won in the regional constituencies.

The revised results, announced on March 28, following the discovery of an omission of the votes from a number of polling divisions in Georgetown showed the PPP/Civic with 209,754 votes and the PNC/R with 166,090 votes. There were only very minor changes for the other parties in the corrected results.

The other parties, which were allocated seats in the parliament as a result of the votes they received were GAP-WPA 9,451 votes with two seats, including the seat it won at the regional constituency level; ROAR with 3,695 votes and one seat at the national level and The United Force with 2,904 votes and one seat at the national level. The seats won by the parties, with the exception of those won at the constituency level, will be filled from their national top-up lists.

In the regional elections, the PPP/C with 208,597 votes has been allocated 104 of the 205 seats contested on the ten regional democratic councils (RDCs); the PNC/R with 164,221 votes has been apportioned 77 seats on ten of the RDCs; GAP/WPA with 8,853 votes has gained 14 seats on the RDCs for Regions One, Three, Eight and Nine; TUF with 3,660 votes has captured six seats on the RDCs for Regions One, Eight and Nine; ROAR with 3,758 has been awarded one seat each on the Regions Two and Six RDCs; and the JFAP with 4,095 votes has secured a seat each on the Regions Three and Four RDCs.

Chief Justice Bernard's order was made on an application by PNC/R candidate and executive member, Joseph Hamilton that Boodoo and the ten Returning officers comply with Section 84(1) of the Representation of the People Act. Hamilton had also applied for orders which would have delayed President Bharrat Jagdeo's swearing in until the re-tabulation and declaration were complete. The Chief Justice dismissed this application.