Secrecy of Votes There were 26 reported violations of secrecy. The secrecy of votes is violated when voters cast their vote in the open, when ballot box committee members SECRECY OF FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE enter the polling booth with the voter for various reasons VOTES as well as at the time of creating the ballot boxes. YES 801 83.9 Some observer testimonies are as follows: ‘We observed NO 26 2.7 more than one person entering the polling booth at the Total 827 86.6 same time’, ‘Civilians entered the polling booth with the MISSING 128 13.4 voters’, ‘It was observed that the Ballot Box Committee Total 955 100.0 Chairperson entered the polling booth with the voters’, ‘The Ballot Box Committee Chairperson entered the polling booth with some voters although they were not disabled; some people entered with their relatives’, ‘A disabled voter asked for her/his spouse to enter the polling booth. But the chairperson said he would not allow it and that he could give assistance if they wanted. The voter objected and then entered the booth alone to cast his/her vote.’ In some cases where disabled voters could not access the ballot boxes, members of the ballot box committee went down to the school yard and had voters cast a vote n the open. This practice is unlawful and the fact that it is taking place shows that the training given to ballot box committee chairpersons is insufficient. The observations are as follows: ‘A patient was brought in from a hospital to cast her vote. The ballot box committee went to their car to have them cast their vote. The voter’s son put the envelope in the ballot box together with the chairperson’, ‘There were no measures for disabled individuals. A committee member went downstairs and had them cast their vote’, ‘There was a patient. He/she wasn’t able to come up to the ballot box so the chairperson and 4 members went to the patient to have him/her vote.’, ‘A voter in a wheelchair cast his/her vote together with his/her son. The Chairperson accompanied them’, ‘A disabled woman was not brought to the ballot box and cast her vote outside with the help of the Chairperson’. In all observations since 2011, we have been noting that voters do not cast a vote if they are registered at ballot boxes with few registered voters. The only exception is when the ballot box committee members are not voters registered at that ballot box.