Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions re­counts com­plet­ed by the Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion yes­ter­day in nine elec­toral ar­eas, saw the PNM main­tain­ing its wins in eight ar­eas and UNC keep­ing the Mara­bel­la South/Vista­bel­la dis­trict.

There’s al­so been a PNM-UNC tie in Lengua/In­di­an Walk, where re­count will con­tin­ue to­day.

The UNC’s Bagatelle/Blue Basin can­di­date has al­so called off re­count in that area—and re­counts con­tin­ue to­day for the last four elec­toral dis­tricts.

This was con­firmed from the re­sults of re­counts is­sued by the EBC yes­ter­day.

Fol­low­ing Mon­day’s LG elec­tion, where the PNM and UNC tied 7-7 for con­trol of the 14 re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, the UNC re­quest­ed re­counts in 12 elec­toral ar­eas and the PNM in two ar­eas.

On Tues­day, EBC Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer, Fern Nar­cis-Scope, re­ceived re­quests for the re­counts, which be­gan that af­ter­noon.

Yes­ter­day morn­ing, the EBC said three of the 14 re­counts were com­plet­ed—in Co­coyea/Tarou­ba, Mara­bel­la South/Vista­bel­la and Ma­yaro North.

The UNC had re­quest­ed re­counts in Co­coyea/Tarou­ba and Ma­yaro North, which the PNM won. The PNM re­quest­ed re­counts in Mara­bel­la South/Vista­bel­la, which the UNC won.

Ac­cord­ing to EBC’s re­sults yes­ter­day, in Co­coyea/Tarou­ba, PNM’s Tere­sa Lynch, who re­ceived 1,207 votes re­mained vic­to­ri­ous. UNC can­di­date Shane Sam­lal re­ceived one more vote but his to­tal was 1,162.

In the elec­tion, Co­coyea/Tarou­ba was viewed as a key mar­gin­al seat. Lynch’s fa­ther, Leslie, was coun­cil­lor be­fore her and the seat was won be­fore by PNM on nar­row mar­gins. In the 2019 LG elec­tion, Lynch won by 30 votes against the UNC, which had heav­i­ly tar­get­ed the area on Mon­day. But Lynch ex­pand­ed the gap and won it by 15 votes more.

The PNM al­so re­tained its win in Ma­yaro North with can­di­date Ryan Stew­art get­ting one less vote with 741. But UNC can­di­date Kris­ten Town­sand got two less votes with 720. The PEP’s Princess Ma­rine got 43 votes.

In Mara­bel­la South/Vista­bel­la, the UNC’s Sasha Ali re­ceived one less vote but re­mained win­ner with 884 votes to PNM can­di­date Mar­cus Gird­harie’s 873 votes.

Yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, re­sults were is­sued for re­counts re­quest­ed by the UNC in Ari­ma West/O’Meara, Au­zonville/Tu­na­puna, Blan­chisseuse/San­ta Rosa, Five Rivers, San­gre Grande North­east and San Juan East.

They are as fol­lows:

Ari­ma West/O’meara

PNM’s Dave Ma­haraj lost two votes - 646

PEP’s Neil St Louis - 78

UNC’s Ryan Di­az lost one vote - 603

Au­zonville/Tu­na­puna

PNM’s John Brig­gs - 1,708

UNC’s Meguel Latch­man re­ceived one more vote - 1,542

Blan­chisseuse/San­ta Rosa

PNM’s Shel­don Moore - 1,477

UNC’s Cherisse Smith - 1,391

Kath­leen Wash­ing­ton (In­de­pen­dent Can­di­date) - 55

Five Rivers

PNM’s De­siree De Fre­itas re­ceived four more votes - 2,116

UNC’s Jamie Ho­sein lost three votes - 2,060

San­gre Grande North­east

PNM’s David Guy lost four votes - 1,420

PDP’s Do­ri­on Robin­son - 52

UNC’s Dar­ren Tim­o­thy lost sev­en votes - 1,405

San Juan East

PNM’s Raphael John re­ceived one more vote - 1,361

PEP’s Di­ana Williams - 129

UNC’s Garth Mills - 1,300

Eyes on Lengua/In­di­an Walk, Ari­ma North­east

The EBC al­so said that in the elec­toral dis­trict of Lengua/In­di­an Walk, a count of the bal­lot box­es re­vealed a tie, with both the PNM and UNC can­di­dates se­cur­ing 1,428 votes each—a loss of two votes for the PNM’s can­di­date and a gain of three (3) votes for the UNC’s can­di­date.

The EBC added, “The vote count for the PEP’s can­di­date re­mained the same at 87 votes. The re­count of the poll card box­es in this elec­toral dis­trict is still on­go­ing.”

The UNC’s Bagatelle/Blue Basin can­di­date, Nali­ni Goin­doo, al­so called off her re­quest in­to a re­count of the votes cast in that elec­toral dis­trict, where the PNM’s can­di­date, Ali­na Zen­nie Renn, won by a mar­gin of 220 votes.

Apart from the Lengua/In­di­an Walk re­count, re­sults are al­so ex­pect­ed to­day for Ari­ma North­east—where PNM and UNC tied—as well as for Mara­cas/San­ta Mar­gari­ta and Mara­bel­la West.

The PNM re­quest­ed a re­count for Mara­bel­la West, where ini­tial re­sults showed UNC’s John Al­i­bo­cus de­feat­ing PNM’s Jameela Mar­ryshaw.

PNM PRO Faris Al-Rawi and PNM chair­man Stu­art Young didn’t re­ply to texted queries on the sit­u­a­tion.

But oth­er PNM of­fi­cials said pri­or to re­count, the num­ber of seats won by PNM and UNC were tied 70-70 and at­ten­tion was on Ari­ma North­east, where both par­ties’ can­di­dates had tied and they were wait­ing to see what the re­count there would re­sult in.

How­ev­er, UNC deputy leader Jear­lean John, who said the par­ty ob­tained more seats than it did in 2019 LG elec­tion, said the UNC had tru­ly won Mon­day’s elec­tion.

“It was sim­ply we field­ed an amaz­ing co­hort of the most hard­work­ing self­less can­di­dates, plus our mes­sage res­onat­ed strong­ly with every sec­tor of so­ci­ety—re­sult­ing in UNC mak­ing great stride and sig­nif­i­cant in­roads in­to ar­eas once viewed as hard­core PNM. We made in­roads in PNM ar­eas from south to north which now bring those ar­eas in­to play,” John added

“Peo­ple are to­tal­ly fed-up of this cru­el non-pro­duc­tive Gov­ern­ment and are ready for a gen­er­al elec­tion to boot the PNM out.”