Gail Alexan­der

Four of the five elec­toral seats on which the UNC re­quest­ed re­counts yes­ter­day, re­mained with the PNM while oth­er re­counts con­tin­ued last night.

The Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) yes­ter­day re­vealed UNC had sought re­counts in five ar­eas.

One lim­it­ed re­count was al­so re­quest­ed in the Pe­nal-Debe cor­po­ra­tion area. The PNM had re­quest­ed that re­count con­cern­ing five of the 13 polling sta­tions in the La Ro­maine seat.

This fol­lows Mon­day’s Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions where pre­lim­i­nary es­ti­mates showed the PNM and UNC each won sev­en of the 14 re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions. On Mon­day the PNM won an es­ti­mat­ed 74 of the 139 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment seats while UNC won 65. PNM’s seats de­creased be­neath the num­ber the par­ty won in the 2016 polls, but the UNC’s in­creased over its 2016 per­for­mance.

On Mon­day night the UNC had in­di­cat­ed it would seek re­counts in sev­er­al ar­eas where the par­ty lost nar­row­ly to PNM. Elec­tion rules (101 (1) al­lows can­di­dates or their elec­tion agents, to re­quest a fi­nal count from the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer in the elec­toral dis­trict where they con­test­ed. Re­quests had to be made by noon yes­ter­day.

UNC pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Ani­ta Haynes said the UNC had re­quest­ed re­counts in: Mara­bel­la West and Co­coyea/Tarou­ba (both in San Fer­nan­do Cor­po­ra­tion), Va­len­cia West (San­gre Grande) and Ma­yaro/Guayagua­yare (Ma­yaro Rio Claro Cor­po­ra­tion), Au­zonville/Tu­na­puna (Tu­na­puna /Pi­ar­co Cor­po­ra­tion).

Re­counts be­gan at 3 pm at the of­fices of the re­spec­tive Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cers.

By 6 pm, it was dis­closed the Mara­bel­la West re­count was com­plet­ed and that seat re­mained with the PNM. UNC al­so con­ced­ed on the Au­zonville/Tu­na­puna seat, af­ter two box­es were count­ed.

EBC of­fi­cials con­firmed that the UNC can­di­date for Va­len­cia West did not show up up to 4.45 pm and that re­count was can­celled, leav­ing the seat with the PNM.

It was al­so con­firmed that the Ma­yaro/Guayagua­yare seat will re­main with the PNM since the re­count showed the PNM with 1,071 votes and the UNC, 893.

Last night, re­counts were still on for the Co­coyea/Tarou­ba seat and re­gard­ing the polling di­vi­sions in La Ro­maine.

Al­so yes­ter­day EBC chief elec­tions of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis-Scope said she couldn’t com­ment on spec­u­la­tion that Mon­day’s vot­er turnout was 22 to 23 per cent. EBC didn’t re­lease any of­fi­cial fig­ure yes­ter­day.

In Mon­day’s poll, both par­ties main­tained re­spec­tive strong­holds. But the PNM lost ground in San Fer­nan­do and oth­er ar­eas and failed in the tar­get­ted Siparia cor­po­ra­tion. The UNC gained ground in San Fer­nan­do and oth­er dis­tricts and won San­gre Grande out­right. In the 2016 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions, PNM al­so won sev­en cor­po­ra­tions.