Counting of Votes
How votes are counted
The Regional Electoral Commission shall announce where and when votes are to be counted. Voters may be present at the counting if space permits.
Public counting of votes
The Electoral Commission shall announce, with suitable notice, the place and time when it is to meet to open the ballot boxes and count the votes. Counting will be done openly so that voters will be able to be present to the extent that space permits.
After checking whether the seals on the ballot boxes have been tampered with, the Electoral Commission shall open the boxes of ballots delivered from each constituency. The Electoral Commission shall check to see whether the numbers who voted according to the records of the local electoral commissions corresponds with the numbers of ballot papers delivered, taking into account any comments recorded by the local commissions. Then the boxes will be emptied into a container, and the ballot papers will be jumbled together. In the presence of representatives of the two different views, the ballot papers will then be sorted according to the alternative marked on each, and counted under the supervision of the Electoral Commission.
What about spoiled papers?
Points of interpretation and dispute in connection with the counting shall be resolved as soon as they arise, with an entry being made in the records stating the number of ballot papers that are considered invalid (spoiled) and the reasons for this. Any dispute within the Electoral Commission as to whether a paper is valid or not shall be resolved by a majority vote of its members. If a dispute arises between the commission and a representative of one of the views on which the referendum is held as to whether a ballot paper is valid or not, the papers involved shall be placed in two special envelopes: one for those that the commission has ruled as being valid, another for those that it has ruled as being invalid.
Announcement of the result
When the ballots have been counted, the Electoral Commission shall enter the result of the referendum in the records and announce them to those present. Care shall be taken to ensure that the total number of votes corresponds with the number of persons recorded as having voted in the individual constituencies according to the reports from the local electoral commissions, and that there is full correspondence with the total number of unused ballot papers.