Page 72 - Conducting Elections during COVID-19

54 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES OF CONDUCTING ELECTIONS DURING COVID-19

The Electoral Commission (DIP) observed that that people infected with the novel Corona Virus would
be allowed to vote by proxy in parliamentary election.
“Anyone who has been diagnosed with Corona Virus infection will be able to vote with the help of
another person of their confidence, who will fill in the ballot as instructed by the infected person,” DIP
spokesman Slaven Hojski told a press conference after the Constitutional Court said that DIP had a
duty to ensure for infected people to be able to exercise their right to vote.
The Commission’s guidelines explained that after a call from a COVID positive person, a member of the
polling committee would come in front of their house or apartment, without coming into direct contact
with the infected person. The person of confidence would then fill in the ballot, put it in an envelope
and return it to the member of the polling committee outside the apartment. The infected person must
not come into direct contact either with the member of the polling committee or with the ballot. The
person of confidence was usually a member of the infected person’s household.