Each party or list has the right to send an observer to each polling center, IECI officials said.

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Ms Rebuck, who is married to Tony Blair's former polling guru Lord Gould, was appointed a CBE in the 2000 Honours List.

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Moreover, the national-list system should mean that people need not cast their votes in their local polling station if they can reach a safer one somewhere else.

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In one polling station in Paris, a party official complained that there were 40 more ballots than voters on the party list.

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