Summary
The results of the count should be published in a timely manner.
Obligations
Election Parts
Quotes
- The electoral legislation should establish a specific time frame in which results must be announced, in order to reduce uncertainty and minimise potential conflict or fraud.
- Observers should try to obtain copies of the official tabulated results sheets or protocols from each level of the tabulation process.
- The announcement of results should be expeditious, and the information that is published should be complete (including the actual numbers of votes cast, and not just percentages.
- There should be immediate release of official election results on completion of counting.
- The legal framework should provide for such timely publication of results.
- When the counting process is completed the results should immediately be announced and posted at the counting station.
- However much care has been taken at the voting and vote-counting stages, transmitting the results is a vital operation whose importance is often overlooked; it must therefore be effected in an open manner. Transmission from the electoral district to the regional authorities and the Central Electoral Commission – or other competent higher authorities – can be done by fax. In that case, the records will be scanned and the results can be displayed as and when they come in. Television can be used to broadcast these results but once again, too much transparency can be a dangerous thing if the public is not ready for this kind of piecemeal reporting. The fact is that the initial results usually come in from the towns and cities, which do not normally or necessarily vote in the same way as rural areas. It is important therefore to make it clear to the public that the final result may be quite different from, or even completely opposite to, the provisional one, without there having been any question of foul play.
- The timely announcement of election results enhances the transparency of the electoral process. The promptness or otherwise with which the results of an election are made known may depend on the electoral system that is in place. The first-past-the-post system has the ability to produce early results, particularly when the counting of the ballots is done at the polling stations.
- There are two kinds of results: provisional results and final results (before all opportunities for appeal have been exhausted). The media, and indeed the entire nation, are always impatient to hear the initial provisional results. The speed with which these results are relayed will depend on the country’s communications system. The polling station’s results can be conveyed to the electoral district (for instance) by the presiding officer of the polling station, accompanied by two other members of the polling station staff representing opposing parties, in some cases under the supervision of the security forces, who will carry the records of the proceedings, the ballot box, etc.