XI. Counting and tabulation of results

B. Counting procedure

3. Miscast ballots

For the local government elections, two ballot boxes are used in the voting centres, one for the mayoral election and one for the council election. In the voting centres in Tirana, four ballot boxes are used, one for the mayoral election of the borough, one for the election of the borough council, one for the mayoral election of the Tirana municipality and one for the election of the Tirana Municipality Council (Article 104). It is, therefore, not uncommon that ballot papers are erroneously cast in the wrong ballot box within the same voting centre. The Code fails to address the problem of counting ballots which were mistakenly placed by voters in the wrong ballot boxes. Neither did the CEC issue any instruction to that effect. This issue led to a major controversy during the recent local elections in the Tirana municipality when counting of misplaced ballots changed the very narrow results of the mayoral election. This led to an even more acute polarisation at the CEC and to a lengthy appeals process.