When the time allotted for voting expires, the head of the electoral office of the polling place announces the ending of voting and orders to close the polling place, at 9pm. The electoral office of the polling place starts to count the votes. Before opening the ballot boxes, all the unused ballots are counted and annulled.

The electoral office of the polling place sets the number of voters to which ballots were issued, based on the number of voters in the electoral rolls and additional lists where signatures were put against each name.

After the seals on the ballot boxes are checked, the head of the electoral office, in the presence of the members of the office and persons authorized to attend the electoral operations, opens the ballot box. First of all, they open the mobile ballot box and count the ballots in these. The other ballot boxes are opened afterward. The polling place is outfitted with enough tables so that all the ballots taken out of ballot boxes could be counted in one place, in the presence of all the members of the electoral office of the polling place and of those attending. The flags with the names of electoral competitors are placed on the tables intended for vote count. 

The ballots from the mobile ballot boxes are counted separately and are compared with the number of ballots issued for the purpose. They are later added to the other ballots to count the number of votes gained by the election runners. Under a procedure agreed by the electoral office or ordered by the Central Election Commission or the district electoral council, the members of the office open the ballot to see how the electors voted. Before writing the number of votes polled by the electoral opponents in the proceedings, the representatives of election runners and persons authorized to attend the electoral operations are allowed to verify the data from the special vote count form.

When the polling place is closed, the members of the electoral office of the polling place remain in a meeting until the votes are counted and the proceedings and report of the electoral office are compiled. The members remain at the polling place and take part in electoral operations, except for cases of physical incapacity or other extraordinary circumstances.

The ballots where the identification numbers of the district and the polling place do not correspond to the real identification numbers of the district and the polling place are declared invalid. The ballots of another model than the set one, those where the stamp “Voted” is put against the names of several candidates or is not put at all, those where voters write additional names of election runners and the ballots that are deformed or spoiled are also declared invalid.

The polling place head hands over the ballots with the valid votes for each of the electoral opponent apart, the proceedings, report, invalid, annulled or challenged ballots, the applications and challenges, all sealed up, to the district electoral council as soon as possible, not later than 18 hours of the announcement of the closing of the polling place.

The election results are tabulated by the district electoral council and then by the Central Election Commission. Before obtaining the voting results in all the district electoral councils and hierarchically inferior electoral offices, the electoral body responsible for the tabulation of election results regularly makes public the preliminary results, as swiftly as possible after obtaining them. The preliminary results detailed by polling place are placed on the website of the CEC immediately after they are processed.

If a candidate polls at least half of the vote, the CEC declares the elections valid and the candidate elected. If none of the candidates gains at least half of the ballot, a runoff vote is held in two weeks for the first two candidates with the largest number of votes obtained in the first round, the one with most of the votes being written the first.

Within three days of the signing of the proceedings on the tabulation of election results, the CEC presents a report on the election outcome to the Audit Office. Within ten days of the receipt of the documents from the CEC, but not before the courts pass final judgments on the challenges submitted in accordance with the legal procedures, the Constitutional Court validates or invalidates the elections by a notice.
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The IPN series I want to know ABOUT ELECTIONS” is designed to explain notions, terms and practices related to the presidential election process.