CEC BiH: Diaspora ballots have arrived, verification underway, counting to begin soon

"All the packages have arrived. Verification is underway, and counting will begin soon. Votes cast by mobile teams are currently being counted," Kalaba said.

The deadline for receiving election materials from abroad expired on Friday, October 9, five days after the General Election.

The CEC member Željko Bakalar told FENA that all postal items received at the CEC's post office box by that date would be forwarded for further processing at the Main Counting Center.

He added that regulations stipulate that the election results must be known no later than 20 days after election day.

The Central Election Commission of BiH confirmed to FENA that postal ballots from abroad had continued to arrive until the statutory deadline and that statistical data on the number of packages received were being compiled.

According to previously published CEC BiH data, 48,074 voters were registered to vote from outside Bosnia and Herzegovina in this year's General Elections.

This figure was established by a Commission decision on July 30, following a review of applications submitted through the e-Izbori electronic system and data on voters registered to vote from abroad.

Initially, 60,037 voters expressed interest in voting from abroad, having registered by the July 21 deadline. After applications were reviewed and compliance with the prescribed requirements verified, the final number of voters included in the extract from the Central Voters Register for out-of-country voting was established.

However, the number of registered voters does not represent the number of votes actually received, which will be known after the packages have been processed and the verification procedure completed.

Votes cast by the diaspora will be included in the overall election results after the required checks have been carried out and valid ballots counted at the Main Counting Center.

According to the deadline cited by Bakalar, the results of out-of-country voting should be known no later than October 24, or 20 days after the General Elections.