II. Comments on the text of the draft law

J. Voting, counting and establishment of results

Article 84(3) maintains the present requirement that the member of the PEC who hands the ballot paper to the voter must sign the ballot paper in order for it to be valid. Previous joint opinions have recommended that this requirement be deleted unless a legitimate reason related to the security or secrecy of the ballot can be articulated for its retention. In previous elections ballot papers were invalidated because of the failure of the PEC member to sign, even though the intent of the voter was clear. This punishes the voter for an error, either accidental or intentional, by the PEC member, which does not appear to affect the validity of the ballot being cast. OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission reiterate their previous recommendation that consideration should be given to reconsider this requirement.