Counting of ballot papers found in the ballot box

1. A polling district electoral committee shall inspect the ballot box, checking if the seals are intact and if there are no other indications that the ballot box may have been opened or that it would otherwise have been possible to remove the ballot papers from it.

2. Having ascertained that the ballot box and the seals have not been tampered with, the ballot box shall be opened.

3. If there are signs of tampering with the ballot box with before the close of poll, the polling district electoral committee shall, by a majority vote of at least three-fifths of all its members, take a decision concerning the tampering of the ballot box, draw up a report on the tampering of the ballot box and note this in the vote counting record. This shall be immediately reported to the constituency electoral committee or the municipal electoral committee so that the latter would take a decision on the counting of the ballot papers contained in this ballot box.

4. The constituency electoral committee or the municipal electoral committee, having been notified about the ballot box which was tampered with and having evaluated all the circumstances, shall, by a three-fifths majority of all its members, take one of the following decisions: 1) to instruct the polling district electoral committee to count the ballot papers; 2) to count the ballot papers itself.

5. The polling district electoral committee shall sort the ballot papers into the following groups: 1) the valid ballot papers of a single-member constituency; 2) the invalid ballot papers of a single-member constituency; 3) the valid ballot papers of a multi-member constituency; 4) the invalid ballot papers of a multi-member constituency; 5) the allegedly invalid ballot papers.

6. The polling district electoral committee shall, taking into consideration the grounds specified in Article 156, decide on the allegedly invalid ballot papers, that is, the ballot papers in respect of which there are doubts as to the validity of the ballot paper, the marks or the absence of
marks on the ballot paper, and the clarity of the voter’s will. The chair of the polling district electoral committee shall present each such ballot paper to the members of that committee and shall announce a voting concerning the ballot paper’s recognition as valid or invalid. The results of this voting shall be recorded on the reverse side of the ballot paper.