The Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) was still been un­able to fin­ish the re­count process for the St Joseph con­stituen­cy yes­ter­day, which meant it was un­able to fi­nalise the re­sult of the 2020 Gen­er­al Elec­tion al­most a week af­ter it oc­curred.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) Ter­rence Deyals­ingh and Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ Ahloy Hunt are the con­tenders in this process.

On Sat­ur­day night, the re­counts or­dered by the UNC in the mar­gin­al seats of La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro, Tu­na­puna and To­co/San­gre Grande were com­plet­ed and up­held the vic­to­ri­ous PNM can­di­dates, the EBC con­firmed yes­ter­day.

The EBC has com­plained that the re­counts were slow be­cause UNC can­di­dates did not ful­ly co­op­er­ate with the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers in charge of the process­es.

In­cum­bent, Diego Mar­tin North/East can­di­date Colm Im­bert took to so­cial me­dia yes­ter­day to ex­press his frus­tra­tion at the de­lay in the process.

“Af­ter five days: To­ba­go East, To­co/San­gre Grande, La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro, Tu­na­puna and San Fer­nandoW­est have re­mained solid­ly PNM with neg­li­gi­ble change in the mar­gins of vic­to­ry. St Joseph is still be­ing re­count­ed, with an in­crease in the PNM mar­gin so far. What a trav­es­ty,” Im­bert wrote on Twit­ter.

The re­counts have de­layed the swear­ing-in of a new gov­ern­ment fol­low­ing last Mon­day’s elec­tion, where the PNM claimed a 22-19 mar­gin of vic­to­ry over the UNC.

Once the EBC can com­plete the process it will rat­i­fy the re­sults and send it to Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes, who will then in­vite the leader of the par­ty that won the most seats to form the next gov­ern­ment.