The SEC annulled yesterday's decision - Only ballots with a stamp are valid, the responsibility for the confusion lies with the Administrative Court
At today's 35th session, the State Election Commission annulled the decision made yesterday to amend the Guidelines for valid and invalid ballots.
Namely, yesterday, the Commission additionally informed and instructed the election boards to comply with Article 109 paragraph (2) and to put a stamp on each ballot, but if there are ballots without a stamp, for such to act in accordance with Article 115, and in connection with Article 110 of the Electoral Code, such ballots to be valid if the will of the voter is clearly expressed.
Today's annulment will mean that the previous instruction remains in force, according to which the ballot must be stamped, and those ballots that will not be stamped will be declared invalid, said SEC President Aleksandar Dashtevski.
According to the decision of the Administrative Court, the ballots without a stamp are valid with the intention to respect the will of the voters who went to the polls, but due to the omission of the members of the Election Boards, they were left without the mandatory stamp on the ballot.
Kondarko stressed that the SEC had been misled into changing the guidelines after the Administrative Court ruled that the ballots should be declared valid and unsealed.
- The court is the one that in its verdict declared ballots without a stamp as valid ballots, and not the SEC. On the contrary, both today and yesterday, the SEC called, pointed out and asked the Election Boards to put stamps on the ballots. Furthermore, in relation to this practice created by the court, the responsibility for the action will be borne by the court that rendered such a judgment with such an attitude. The law is clear, our position is clear and I regret that we got into a situation due to this ruling of the Administrative Court which in turn led to a re-run of a polling station in Suto Orizari. The responsibility is not borne by the SEC, this directly resulted from the decision of the Administrative Court which declared the ballots without a stamp valid and therefore the voting was annulled. These are the facts, stressed SEC member Boris Kondarko.
