Promo-LEX explains difference between parallel vote count and CEC data

The difference of 0.06 percentage point between the results of a parallel counting of votes cast in the Chisinau mayoral elections on June 19, which was conducted by the NGO Promo-LEX, and the official results was due to the fact that at a polling station in Botanica district (no.1/25) the order of the candidates' registration in the count protocol was inverse, Info-Prim Neo reports. Promo-LEX is announcing this correction after finishing the physical processing and manual computation of the vote count protocols, the organization said in a press release. According to corrected data, Dorin Chirtoaca polled 50.60% or 186,916 votes, and Igor Dodon 49.40% or 182,494 votes. The results announced by Promo-LEX on June 20, the next day after the elections, differed by 0.06 percentage point from those announced by the Central Election Commission. Later it was found that a technical error explained the difference: when processing results by telephone, it wasn't noticed that the order of the candidates in the count protocol had been wrong and as a result the 552 votes for Dorin Chirtoaca were attributed to Igor Dodon, and the 770 votes for Dodon went to Chirtoaca. To save time, operators don't use names, but codes with ordinal numbers, Promo-LEX further explained. On June 20, Promo-LEX presented the following results: 50.66% for Dorin Chirtoaca and 49.34% for Igor Dodon; which were nevertheless very close to the CEC results: 50.60% and 49.40%, respectively.