§ Article 78Keeping of the Records of Voters who Have Voted by Post and the

Counting of their Votes and Preference Votes for the Candidate
1. After the counting of ballot papers found in the ballot box, ballot papers received by post shall be calculated in the following procedure:
1) the chairman of the polling district committee shall present, unopened, all outer envelopes received by post. Their number shall be announced and entered in the vote counting record;
2) outer envelopes shall be opened one at a time;
3) a voter certificate shall be taken out of the outer envelope, the voter’s surname shall be read aloud, it shall be checked against the voter list of the polling district, and the voucher envelope shall be stamped with the seal of the polling district. If the person on the voter certificate is not on the voter list; if the voter has already signed the voter list indicating that he has already voted in the polling district; if another envelope for voting by post has been received from the same voter; if there is no voter certificate in the outer envelope; or if there is more than one voucher envelope in the outer envelope - the seal shall not be affixed and the ballot paper (ballot papers) in the envelope shall be considered invalid, the envelope shall not be opened. This fact must be noted on the voucher envelope (voucher envelopes). The content of such envelopes shall not be taken into account in the vote counting record of the polling district;
4) in the voter list of the polling district, the words "voted by post" or “VBP” shall be written by the surname of the voter whose vote has been received by post;
5) the sealed voucher envelope shall be cast into the ballot box prepared and sealed according to the established requirements; and
6) when all envelopes received by post have been inspected, the ballot box shall be opened and the sealed voucher envelopes shall be opened. If there is more than one ballot paper of the single-member and multi-member constituency in the voucher envelope, all ballot papers in the envelope shall be considered invalid. Then the votes received by post shall be counted according to the requirements of Article 77.
2. If only one sealed voucher envelope for voting by post is in the polling district (committee), it, in order to protect the secrecy of voting, shall not be opened, and shall be handed over to the electoral committee, which has formed this committee, which shall enter the results of the voting in its vote counting record.
3. After votes cast in a polling station and by post for lists of candidates and candidates have been counted, all data have been entered into the vote counting record of a single-member constituency and the first part of the vote counting record of the multi-member constituency, the record and the first part of the record have been signed by the committee members, chairman and observers and the polling district committee has announced to the constituency electoral committee that the votes for lists of candidates were counted, the polling district committee may commence counting votes cast for candidates (preference votes). The polling district committee may decide to count preference votes at once or, with the consent of the chairman of the constituency electoral committee, to count them at another time, but not later than within 24 hours. If it is decided to count preference votes at another time, the ballot papers to be counted shall, in a manner prescribed by the Central Electoral Committee, be transferred in a special envelope for safekeeping to the constituency electoral committee. In this case, the constituency electoral committee, after it has accepted election documents from the polling district committee, must adopt one of the following decisions on the counting of preference votes in the ballot papers transferred to it:
1) to return ballot papers and to instruct the polling district committee from which it has got the preference votes to count such votes;
2) to change the decision of the polling district committee from which the election documents have been received, regarding the counting of preference votes and to instruct the committee of another polling district to count preference votes or to count preference votes itself. In this case , the constituency electoral committee must set the place and time of counting preference votes.
4. If the committee counts preference votes next day or recounts ballot papers, it shall, in the presence of at least 3/5 of the members, check whether the special envelope (envelopes) has not been opened. If the polling district committee adopts a decision that the envelope has been tampered with or its contents have been changed, an act shall be drawn up concerning this fact, the envelope shall be packed, the package shall be sealed and the votes shall not be counted. The package shall be delivered to the constituency electoral committee. The Central Electoral Committee shall be immediately informed about this. A decision pertaining to the counting of the votes which are in the package shall be adopted by the constituency electoral committee. Upon having ascertained that the envelope has not been tampered with, counting of preference votes shall commence. Information on the time and place of the counting of preference votes as well as in the event when the constituency electoral committee decides to recount ballot papers, must, not later than one hour before the commencement of the counting, be announced on two notice boards: one installed in the building in which the headquarters of the constituency electoral committee is situated, and the other in the premises in which preference votes shall be counted. When counting preference votes, election observers may attend and a police officer must be on duty. All ballot papers shall be put on tables on which no there are no other documents and writing materials ( except black lead pencils), and the committee shall check if there are all the ballot papers from which preference votes must be counted. The concrete procedure of preference votes counting shall be established by the Central Electoral Committee not later than 7 days prior to elections. Votes must be counted in such a way that such procedure might be observed by all the persons present during the counting of votes and would be able to ascertain that votes are counted fairly and justly. Counted votes shall be recorded in the second part of the vote counting record of the multi-member constituency, ballot papers shall be packed, the package shall be sealed and transferred to the constituency electoral committee.