(1) Votes received from other electoral districts and votes received by postal voting shall be counted in an open meeting by the local government election commission or the polling station commission for postal voting established thereby.

(2) Without disturbing the work of the commission which is counting the votes received by postal voting and from other electoral districts, the meeting may be concurrently attended by not more than two authorised observers from each political party or alliance of political parties which has submitted a list of candidates for the relevant council elections, and also representatives of the Central Election Commission and mass media. Members of the election commission of the relevant local government and persons authorised by these commissions may also be present at the meeting of the polling station commission for postal voting. After completion of the counting of votes, the abovementioned persons have the right to familiarize with the vote counting report.

(3) Prior to the commencement of the counting of votes, registration envelopes shall be sorted into valid and invalid registration envelopes without opening them.

(4) Such registration envelopes received by postal voting shall be deemed to be invalid which:

1) have been sent by voters who have not applied for postal voting;

2) have been sent by persons who are not registered in the electoral roll in the relevant electoral district;

3) have been sent by voters who have already voted in the relevant council elections on the election day or on any of the advance voting days at the polling station;

4) do not bear the given name, surname, and sequential number of the voter with which he or she has been registered in the electoral roll;

5) have been received after the commencement of the counting of votes;

6) have been sent from the Republic of Latvia;

7) have been received from voters who have sent several registration envelopes.

(4¹) Such registration envelopes received from other electoral districts shall be deemed to be invalid:

1) which do not allow identification of the voter;

2) which are not stamped with the seal of the local government election commission of the location;

3) if the relevant person is not registered in the electoral roll in the relevant electoral district;

4) if, according to the information in the electoral register, the relevant person has already voted.

(5) Valid registration envelopes shall be placed together and a notation shall be made in the electoral roll that a valid registration envelope has been received. The total number of valid registration envelopes shall be recorded in the election procedure log. Invalid registration envelopes shall not be opened but the total number thereof shall be recorded in the election procedure log.

(6) In opening a valid registration envelope, it shall be verified whether it contains only one ballot (for votes received by postal voting – postal ballot) envelope. If there are several such envelopes in the registration envelope, all of them shall be deemed invalid. A postal ballot envelope shall be deemed invalid if the registration envelope does not contain a signed statement that the voter has voted in person.

(7) [20 October 2022]

(8) The valid and invalid registration envelopes shall be registered and kept in accordance with the procedures laid down by the Central Election Commission.

(9) The general procedures provided for in this Chapter shall be applied to the counting of votes received by post and from other electoral districts and the calculation of election results.

[17 December 2020; 20 October 2022]