By: Nova24tv.si
What is happening with the National Electoral Commission (DVK)? From the website, which mysteriously froze right in the middle of vote counting, to a whole series of formal irregularities regarding the organisation of polling stations and commissions, and now even complications in counting ballots from abroad.
We received information in the newsroom that the District Electoral Commission (OVK) in Radovljica was supposed to begin reviewing votes from abroad in an hour, but the secretary was just informed by phone from the DVK that today’s session for determining the results of voting from abroad cannot be held, because the results of the DKPs (polling stations at Slovenian embassies and consulates) are still being established.
Therefore, the meeting to count ballots from abroad will not take place until tomorrow. It is not entirely clear what determining DKP results has to do with counting regular ballots from abroad, since in the past these two activities always took place simultaneously without any issues.
Then came another change. Supervisors received another call saying that the counting of votes from abroad would indeed take place today, as originally planned.
After that, a third instruction followed: “Today the OVK will determine and confirm the final results of postal voting from abroad, but not the final result for the district (Radovljica). The DVK will only enter its results this evening.”
In other words, complete chaos. We can only assume that similar situations are happening elsewhere.
Ballots from abroad can change the final outcome
It is important to emphasise that ballots from abroad can even determine which political party won the election. Only a few thousand votes separate the top two parties, the Freedom Movement and SDS, and the other parties are also very close. The difference between the leading parties is only 7,937 votes.
The National Electoral Commission (DVK) sent voting materials to 113,652 eligible voters with permanent residence abroad and to 1,707 eligible voters who were temporarily abroad on election day and registered to vote. This is therefore a huge number of votes that have not yet been counted, and it must also be taken into account that votes from abroad usually give more support to right‑leaning parties. It is therefore difficult to understand why, with such tight results, more than a week after the election there are still no final results.