GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said it will release the preliminary results of Monday’s regional and general elections today, as the ruling coalition urged its supporters “to continue to remain calm”.

In a brief statement posted on its website, GECOM said that the results would be released during a news conference schedule to begin at 12:00 hours.

On Monday GECOM said that 660,998 persons were eligible to vote at the 2,339 polling stations across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country and that 11 political parties had put up candidates for the elections.

But it said that only nine were contesting the general elections and political observers said that the contest was a straight fight between the coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the main opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).

In a statement, the APNU said that it wanted to thank all “Guyanese for the patience which they exercised on election day yesterday and continue to exercise as we await the announcement of the official results by the Guyana Elections Commission.

“We implore all Guyanese, especially our supporters to continue to remain calm and to go about your daily activities in a spirit of peace and optimism. We are cognisant that there will be anxieties for the results but we reiterate that we must allow GECOM to do its work and await the official announcement which is likely to commence later today.”

The coalition, which is led by President David Granger, said that “all of our internal projections are positive and indicate that we will be returned to government for a second term to continue the work of building and developing Guyana”.

The elections are being monitored by local, regional and international observers that have already indicated that their preliminary report on the polls will be made public on Wednesday.