New Sections 257/A and 257/B in the Act on Electoral Procedure, as amended by Section 43 of the Act, grant the head of the local election office with the discretion to divide the voter list of a polling district designated for absentee voting into several sections if the list has above 1,500 voters and mandates such division if the list is above 2,000. A previous ODIHR recommendation proposed that consideration be given to have more than one polling station in each electoral district to be designated for absentee voters, in order to address problems of long queues and delays at such polling stations. Though the amendments do not allow for designation of additional polling stations for absentee voters in line with the recommendation, they provide a mechanism to facilitate smoother election day operations. However, while the new mechanism may be utilised as such, the ODIHR previously recommended that the maximum limit of 1,500 voters for regular polling stations, as established in Section 77(1), should also apply to polling stations designated for absentee voting. Providing heads of election offices with discretionary power in cases of lists between 1,500 – 2,000 does not adequately address this issue, as the limit does not strictly apply.