Counting and tabulation of votes by the Precinct Electoral Bureau

(1) After the expiry of the time reserved for voting, the Chairperson of the Precinct Electoral Bureau shall declare the voting closed and order the closure of the polling station. The Precinct Electoral Bureau shall begin the counting of votes.

(2) Before the opening of the ballot boxes, all the remaining unused ballot papers shall be counted and cancelled by the Precinct Electoral Bureau, in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission, and shall be separately bundled and sealed.

(3) Before counting the votes cast for electoral competitors or votes expressed for the referendum options, the Precinct Electoral Bureau shall determine the number of voters who were issued ballot papers by counting the number of signatures affixed by the voters in the basic voters’ lists and in the supplementary voters’ lists.

(4) In case of holding voting under Article 8 (2), after the expiry of the time reserved for voting and closing of the polling station on the first Elections Day, the Precinct Electoral Bureau shall count only the unused ballot papers and shall fix the number of voters to whom the ballot papers have been issued, in correspondence with paragraph (3). The result of that counting shall be recorded in minutes, signed by the members of the Precinct Electoral Bureau. The counting of votes obtained by the electoral competitors on the first Elections Day shall not be performed, since the ballot papers from the ballot boxes shall be counted after the end of voting on the second Elections Day.

(5) Following the verification the seals on the ballot boxes, the Chairperson of the Precinct Electoral Bureau, in the presence of poll workers and of persons authorised to observe the election procedures, shall open the ballot boxes. Mobile ballot boxes shall be opened first, the ballot papers from these boxes shall be counted, and, subsequently, the other ballot boxes shall be opened and the ballots from these boxes shall be counted.

(6) The polling station must be provided with sufficient tables so that all ballots taken out of ballot boxes may be counted in one place visible to all members of the Precinct Electoral Bureau and to other present persons. On the tables where votes are being counted shall be placed the name tags with the name of the electoral competitors and, in the event of a referendum - with options “YES” and “NO” (“DA” and “NU”).

(7) The number of ballot papers taken out of mobile ballot boxes shall be counted first separately, than the obtained number shall be compared with the number of ballots issued for this purpose, and only after these ballots shall be added to other ballot papers in order to count the votes obtained by the candidates. or, in the event of a referendum, those expressed for the options “YES” or “NO”.

(8) In accordance with a procedure established by the Central Electoral Commission, the members of the Precinct Electoral Bureau have to verify ballot papers and determine for which electoral competitors or for which referendum option the vote has been cast. The ballot papers issued for each electoral competitor or referendum option shall be separately counted and bundled and the results, once fixed, shall be recorded in the minutes on the votes counting results.

(9) Before signing the minutes on the votes counting results, the members of the Precinct Electoral Bureau shall offer the persons authorised to observe elections procedure the opportunity to check the data from the minutes.

(10) The Precinct Electoral Bureau shall not include the invalid ballot papers in the total number of valid casted votes.

(11) After the polling station is being closed, the Precinct Electoral Bureau shall be in a meeting during the counting the votes and filling the minutes and report of the Precinct Electoral Bureau. All the Precinct Electoral Bureau electoral officials shall remain inside the polling station and be engaged in the bureau’s electoral operations throughout this period, except for extraordinary and objective circumstances.