The National Election Council has information about the regulations on ballot counting, who is allowed to witness the vote counting.
Accordingly, vote counting must be carried out in the polling station immediately after the election ends (except as prescribed in Clause 8, Article 23 of Circular 21/2025/TT-BNV).
Only members of the Election Team are allowed to conduct ballot counting. The Election Team must complete the ballot counting within no more than 24 hours from the end of voting at the polling area.
Also according to the National Election Council, the procedure for conducting vote counting is carried out through many very strict steps.
Specifically, before opening the ballot box, the Election Team must statistically and seal unused ballots and ballots written by voters (if any), and make a record of statistics on the use of ballots for National Assembly deputies of the 16th term and People's Council (HĐND) deputies at all levels for the 2026-2031 term.
All unused ballots, ballots written off by voters after sealing are sent to the commune-level People's Committee for management.
The Head of the Election Team opens the main ballot box and the auxiliary ballot box (if any) to conduct ballot counting. Before opening the ballot box, the Head of the Election Team invites 2 voters who are literate, have prestige among the people in the area and are not candidates for National Assembly deputies, People's Council deputies at all levels in the voting area to witness the opening of the ballot box.
Candidates, representatives of agencies, organizations, and units introducing candidates or people authorized have the right to witness the vote counting and complain about the vote counting.
Press reporters witnessed the vote counting of the Election Team, but must ensure a safe distance for the Election Team to perform the vote counting task.
The Head of the Election Team assigns members of the Election Team to groups to carry out the vote counting. For the vote counting to be accurate, each group should arrange 3 people.
The Election Team performs the classification of ballots according to the color of the NA deputy election ballot, the color of the provincial People's Council deputy election ballot and the color of the commune People's Council deputy election ballot; at the same time, inventory the total number of ballots in the ballot box to determine the number of collected ballots and hand over the types of ballots to the assigned group of the Election Team to start the ballot counting.
The Election Team conducts a check of the total number of votes collected compared to the total number of voters who have participated in voting. If the total number of votes collected is equal to or less than the total number of voters who have participated in voting, the Election Team is allowed to conduct vote counting.
In case the total number of votes collected is greater than the total number of voters who have participated in voting, the Election Team must re-examine; if the re-examination still gives the result that the total number of votes collected is greater than the total number of voters who have participated in voting, immediately put the ballots into the ballot box, then seal the ballot box and immediately report to the Election Committee for settlement.
In case it exceeds the jurisdiction of the Election Commission to resolve, the Election Commission must promptly report to the same-level Election Commission for consideration and decision. Depending on the specific characteristics of each locality, the provincial-level Election Commission has guidance on the process of organizing ballot counting to be appropriate.
