Bitola, 28 October 2021 (MIA) – The State Election Commission on Thursday morning took over confidential election materials, set to be used in the second round of voting for the local elections. SEC has taken on 400 people, set to offer technical support at polling places in overcoming issues regarding use of fingerprint scanners, said SEC head Aleksandar Dashtevski. “The reduced speed of the voting process in some places in the first round, caused by new technology and use of fingerprint scanners, will be improved in the second round, as SEC implemented additional training. However, we’ve also hired 400 people who will be in charge of offering technical support and ensuring the voting process is uninterrupted. Experience from the first round has prepared us for the runoff,” Dashtevski noted. 1.6 million ballots were printed in Bitola’s “Kiro Dandaro” printing house in the past seven days, set to be distributed to local election commissions ahead of Sunday’s runoff. “The printing house produced and distributed ballots for the first round of voting quickly and without error. Voting materials for the runoff are also high-quality and contain 20 types of protection against forgery,” Dashtevski stressed. The Bitola-based printing house has been printing voting materials for different elections since 2002.