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ANNEX II
 

1. The ballot counting starts upon a decision of the CEAZ, after all the boxes of voting centres under the jurisdiction of the CEAZ have been received. The ECS staff, one after the other and only in ascending order of the ordinal numbers of the voting centres, starting from the voting centre with the smallest number, takes from the stack of the ballot boxes the ballot boxes with the ballot papers of only one voting centre. Then the staff put the box on the table and open it by breaking the seals with the security codes.


2. For the local elections, the ballot box of a voting centre for political parties and/or electoral coalitions is counted together with the box with the ballot papers for candidates for mayors of local government units of that voting centre. The counting is carried out consecutively, starting with the box for the mayor of the local government unit. The ECS staff take out the Record of the Closing of the Polls from the box and enter on the ECS the data on the voter turnout, ballot papers distributed in the voting centre, the damaged ballot papers, and the unused ballot papers.
The entry of the data is done under the supervision of at least two CEAZ members, who have the right to closely observe the Record of the Closing of the Polls.


3. The CEAZ shall be informed in case the Record of the Closing of the Polls is not found in the ballot box or the data on the number of voters who have voted, ballot papers delivered in the voting centre, unused ballot papers and damaged ballot papers have not been entered in the Record of the Closing of the Polls. The CEAZ orders the ECS technical staff to close the ballot box, to fill in the Record of Findings for this fact, noting down the closing seals, to leave aside the ballot box/es of that voting centre until the verification and filling in of the Record of Findings, in accordance with the procedures of point 3 of article 116/1 of this Code, and to open the box of voting materials of that voting centre.


4. Then, the ECS staff take the box with the voting materials and put it on the special table for the verification of the voting material by the representatives of the subjects specified, in accordance with point 3 of Section 4 of this Annex. The representatives of the subjects carry out the procedures envisaged in article 116/1 of this Code.


5. When the voting material is subject to verification procedures, the ballot box/es of the voting centre is left aside in the spot predefined by the CEAZ and the counting continues with the consecutive voting centre, guaranteeing uninterrupted counting of the ballot boxes. Once the voting material is verified, the data entered in the Record of Findings are submitted to the CEAZ, which orders their immediate entering in the ECS by the ECS staff. Then the counting
of the ballot papers shall start immediately, by opening the box with the ballot papers from that voting centre.


6. The ECS staff take the ballot papers out of the boxes, unfold them, placing them on the table, one on top of the other, with the reverse side of the ballot facing up. If miscast ballots are found during the process, they are separated, grouped and stacked according to the respective categories of the bodies for which is being voted, in accordance with the specification in the normative act of the CEC. Then the ECS staff group, stack and place them in the optical counting device, with the purpose of the counting and evaluation of the ballots by the device itself, in accordance with the procedures envisaged in the normative act of the CEC. Following counting and evaluation, the ballot papers are put inside the relevant envelopes by the ECS staff, in accordance with the procedures envisaged in this Code.


7. With the objective of optimizing the ballot counting process, the CEC, by a normative act, may decide to have at least four boxes counted consecutively by the same counting device, applying the same procedures used for the opening of the ballot box. The normative act shall specify the procedures and actions to be carried out by the ECS staff regarding the sorting, grouping, arranging and counting of the ballot papers of the ballot boxes by the same device without interruption. The table of results for each counted box is printed following the completion of the counting and evaluation of all ballot papers of the four boxes. The normative act of the CEC also specifies the manner of handling, arranging and putting the ballot papers inside special envelopes following the counting process. The ballots, which are scanned and separated by the ECS, are put inside special envelopes, in accordance with the specification of point 12 of Section 7 of this Annex, and are enclosed inside the relevant box in accordance with the specifications of the CEC.


8. Independent of whether the CEC has taken a decision, in accordance with point 7 of this Section, in any case, the last four boxes of the EAZ for each counting device are counted without issuing the relevant table of results of the box. The table of results for these boxes is compiled and printed only after the completion of the counting and evaluation of all ballot papers of all four boxes. The CEC, by a normative act, specifies the actions to be carried out by the ECS staff, the CEAZ, as well as the manner of handling, arranging and putting the ballots inside special envelopes following the counting process.