At 8.15 this morning there were four polling divisions left and the FNM's Duane Sands still held a one-point lead over the PLP's Ryan Pinder.

After 24 hours of counting, reports are that everyone is tired and a bit testy and officials have agreed to break.

Updates from last night's recount showed slow progress, including a number of speed bumps.

By 4.30 this morning polling division 7 was done and Duane Sands' lead was back down to one vote.

Both Pinder and Sands lost a vote in polling division three. The votes were tossed because voters marked the ballot with the ink from their thumb instead of the provided pens. Voters' thumbs are coloured with dark ink to indicate they have voted.

Polling division 4 went faster than the others but hope for momentum was dashed when reporters found out that counting had stopped for two hours. The Tribune reported that the delays was caused when lawyers refused to sign off on the results from polling division 4.

Pinder gained a vote in polling division five after the PLP's legal team successfully argued that a vote marked with a letter instead of the required mark should still be count.

FNM chairman Carl Bethel said at the rate of the recount he does not expect results before Thursday night.

Around 1am, as a cold front chilled the island, results from polling division 6 came in. While the numbers were not published, Pinder gained a vote, putting him on par with Sands. But Sands was back in the lead with one vote after counting in division seven.

Other news from yesterday's recount:

Crowds at Thelma Gibson Primary School during the recount yesterday. Photo from The Tribune.

Just before 5pm yesterday, after results from polling division three put him three ahead of the PLP's Ryan Pinder, Sands made a short statement: "It is not nerve wracking at all. The people have already expressed their will. It is simply a matter of waiting to see if it is certified. However long it takes, that is how long I will be here. Being up by three is better than up by one vote. We'll take it any way we get it. It is a little bit more of a cushion and will be more of a challenge for the lead to be eroded."

Emerging from the recount a few minutes after Sands, Pinder was swarmed by PLP supporters who hugged and held on to him, calling him Ryan the Lion. Pinder refused to talk to the media.

As the recount continued, the PLP's Bernard Nottage said it was not unusual for a recount to take a long time, pointing out that during the first count ballots from all divisions are counted at the same time. In a recount, officials count only one division at a time.

Valentine Grimes, a frequent force behind-the-scenes for the PLP, said the election will likely have to be decided in court. The parties have disagreed about several ballots and the PLP do not feel the current vote count establishes a wide enough margin to declare a winner.

Challenged and Protested votes:

Yesterday afternoon, workers for the PLP said that five votes were protested and they were all votes for the PLP. The FNM said that was not true and that the protest votes had not been counted yet.

• Challenged votes: made by voters whose names were on the register but who were challenged by party agents. These voters were required to swear an oath to vote.
• Protested votes: made by voters whose names were not on the register or who had questionable voters cards. They were required to vote on coloured ballots.
• Challenged votes were included in the unofficial count that put FNM Candidate Duane Sands ahead by one vote, protested votes were not
• The number of challenged and protested votes has not been released

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