Today's voting process took place smoothly but with a lower turnout compared to the first round of local elections.
Election day was not characterized by any serious incidents within polling stations that could undermine the integrity or credibility of the process. Throughout the voting day, a generally linear trend of turnout was recorded, with no significant influx of voters to polling stations. Adherence to safeguards against Covid 19 has been lacking, especially by voters in rural areas, but not excluding election staff.
In the afternoon, movements of exponents of political entities were observed in certain locations, including the Prime Minister of the country, which can be interpreted as an exercise of influence on the will of the voters.
Increased interest of the media and organizations to measure the mood of voters through the administration of exit polls at the exit of polling stations has been noted. It was also reported that some media outlets restricted the monitoring of the process inside the polling stations.
Regarding procedural irregularities, this process was also accompanied by problems which were repeated in all preliminary election processes. Inaccuracies in the voter list (about 50% of polling stations), and the extremely high trend of assisted voting (over 90% of polling stations) are the two most pronounced phenomena in the second round of elections.
It is worth mentioning that in this electoral process the cases of photographing the vote have marked a significant decrease, compared to the previous electoral processes, where this phenomenon has been very pronounced.
In anticipation of the start of the counting process, DiA calls for increased care and attention by election staff to ensure fair reflection of civic will. We also invite political entities and their supporters not to announce eventual victories based on unofficial sources, but to wait for the announcement of preliminary results by the CEC.