what majluta so greatly feared came to be when vote counts showed a great number of invalid votes. balaguer had a lead over him but the number of invalid votes was bigger than that of the margin of victory. jacobo tried to get the ballots counted since the great majority of these were ballots that had his face marked multiple times on the prd and liberal party tickets and therefore were undeniable cast for him. on 19 may, with 92% of the votes counted, the vote count was halted and guards were placed outside the central elections board and majluta declared himself the winner despite being behind balaguer in the tally. after appeals from salvador jorge blanco, the vote counting was resumed on may 21 only to be stopped again on the 22nd.