With expedited procedures, the Central Election Commission has begun printing ballots for postal voting in the June 7 elections, on the same day that the contract award notice for this process was published, which cost 58 thousand euros more than was foreseen in the regular contract.
On the same day that the Central Election Commission announced the award of the contract, the printing of ballots that will be used for postal voting in the June 7 elections also began.
"So, this faster printing of ballots used for voting by mail is done with the aim of enabling us to send ballot packages within the deadlines to voters outside Kosovo who have selected this voting method during registration," said CEC spokesperson Valmir Elezi.
The postal voting process for over 100 citizens registered outside Kosovo begins on May 25 and ends on June 6.
The CEC will send packages with ballots that cost about 60 thousand euros more than was foreseen by the regular contract, to the postal addresses of registered voters.
On Monday, the notice for the award of the contract was published on the electronic public procurement platform, but the notice for its signing has not yet appeared.
According to the Public Procurement Law, 10 days must pass from the publication of the contract award notice to its signing, to enable economic operators to file complaints.
However, an opinion of the Public Procurement Regulatory Commission foresees the possibility for the contracting authority to sign the contract without waiting for the legal deadlines in cases of extreme emergency, defined in Article 35 of the LPP.
This provision may not be applied if the emergency situation is caused by the negligence, intentional acts or omissions of the contracting authority itself.
“Where, to the extent strictly necessary for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by objectively verifiable events which could not have been reasonably foreseen by the contracting authority concerned, such contracting authority may not grant the time required for the exercise of any other procedure provided for in this Law. Provided that this provision may not be invoked if the circumstances which created the extreme urgency are attributable to negligent or intentional acts or omissions of the contracting authority”, states the Law on Public Procurement, Article 35.
The contract, worth 342 thousand euros, was awarded to the Slovenian company Cetis, through a negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice.
This company had also printed ballots for last year's local elections, when discrepancies in the serial numbers were identified.
On Tuesday, the regular tender opened by the CEC for the printing of ballots was canceled after no company submitted a bid.
The value foreseen in the regular contract was 284 thousand euros.
The June 7 elections will be the second extraordinary elections held within six months.
