Tabulation of the election result by the Counting Team

(amended by Law No. 74/2012, dated 19 July 2012)

1. Upon conclusion of the procedure specified in Article 118 of this Code, the first counter, together with the other members of the Counting Team, shall complete the table of results for that voting centre according to the template form prescribed by the CEC.

2. The original table of voting results, according to point 1 of this Article, including contestations, if any, by a member of the Counting Team, shall be delivered immediately in person to the CEAZ by the Counting Team. A copy of the table of results shall be given to each member of the Counting Team and to the observers of electoral subjects. If any of the observers of electoral subjects has contestations regarding the tabulated results, they shall be recorded immediately in the CEAZ Book of Records.
One copy shall be immediately sent electronically to the CEC. The CEC shall publish immediately on its website the official results for each voting centre, upon their official receipt from the CEAZ. The publication shall clearly state that this is a preliminary result.

3. After the completion of the procedures specified in points 1 and 2 of this Article, the ballot papers shall be put in separate envelopes by electoral subjects, except for the contested ballot papers, whereas the invalid ballots shall be put in the envelope marked “INVALID VOTES”. The envelopes with the ballot papers for the electoral subjects, the envelope with the invalid ballot papers, the envelope with the contested ballot papers,and the envelope with the Records of Sealing, shall be put inside the ballot box. The box shall be sealed with seals with new security codes. The numbers of the codes shall be recorded in the table of results.

One copy of the Records of Sealing, together with the Records of the Closing of the Polls, shall be given to the CEAZ secretary, who shall be responsible for their administration. The box shall be sealed with seals with new security codes. A copy of the Records of Sealing shall also be given to observers from electoral subjects. 
After that, in case of local elections, the box shall be placed near the table of the Counting Team and the box with the ballot papers for the council shall be taken. In case of local elections, for the ballot boxes with the ballot papers for the political parties or electoral coalitions, the Counting Team shall perform the same actions specified in Articles 116 to 119 of this Code.

4. The Counting Team shall take the ballot boxes with the ballot papers of the next voting centre from the stack of the ballot boxes only after it has sent the processed boxes to the designated place inside the room of the Ballot Counting Centre and has handed over the respective table of results for the counted voting centre to the CEAZ.

5. Counting shall continue uninterruptedly until the completion of counting of all ballot boxes received as regular by the CEAZ. Counting may be interrupted by a CEAZ decision only for reasons that do not depend on the election administration and that hamper the normal counting process. The reasons shall be explained in the CEAZ Meeting Records Book, including the decision to resume counting.