Recount expected to finish later today

Sunday 11 October 2020

Election volunteers are half of the way through the recount of votes and are expecting to complete the gruelling process late afternoon today.

Just 32 hours after a lengthy 15-hour count, election volunteers were called back to their stations for a recount, starting at 10:00 yesterday morning.

Pierre Ehmann and fellow signatories Catherine Hall, Scott Ogier and Garry Collins were able to call for a recount within 24 hours of the result as they came within 2% of Carl Meerveld, who finished in 38th place with 6,475 votes.

Mr Ehmann, finished in 40th place with 6,335 votes, followed by Catherine Hall (6,281 votes), Scott Ogier (6,097 votes) and Garry Collins (6,076 votes).

The candidate immediately below Deputy Meerveld is Fergus Dunlop (6,353 votes), who could be the one to take advantage if there has been a significant miscount. 

Good progress being made on the recount but it's highly likely the result will be declared tomorrow. Jurat Stephen Jones appointed by the Bailiff to oversee the recount said they’ll stop about 6pm before coming back tomorrow morning to finish. Anything changes we’ll let you know pic.twitter.com/KEJojMwCGR

— Guernsey Election 2020 (@GSYElection2020) October 10, 2020

Pictured: Volunteers adjourned the count at 18:00 yesterday with the aim of completing it PM today.

Volunteers have upwards of 600,000 votes to count and got through "roughly half of the ballots" yesterday.

They will return at 10:00 to continue the recount. It’s currently looking like a late afternoon/early evening finish, with a declaration shortly after. 

Presiding Officer Jurat Stephen Jones said the volunteers were understandably tired and that it was better to spread the recount over two days, rather than try to cram it into one. 

"It is looking highly likely that the result will be declared tomorrow," he said yesterday.

"Most of these fantastic volunteers worked a very long day on Thursday so I don't believe it helpful to ask them to do the same today. I think they would be better to have a good night's sleep and come back fresh tomorrow [Sunday] morning."