Your idea is good because it does not require intervention by the admin, but since there will be those who will not read the rules and will make this fatal mistake (maybe accidentally) and thus be disqualified, it would certainly be better to merits be completely disabled in that thread. Either way, some of it would be desirable to apply.
I suggested penalties either in this thread or the one in Meta regarding the merits. Theymos doesn't have to intervene at all in that case. For each merit that a candidate awards in the thread, he will have one vote removed from his total count. So if you get 20 votes for a certain category, but your rewarded people with 10 merits altogether, 10 of your votes would be disqualified. Ultimately, your final count is 10 votes.
What is really incomprehensible to me is that someone is pressuring to publish the final results, and does not show even the slightest empathy for a person who is fighting with his family for life in a country attacked by his compatriots. I hope he gets his reward as soon as possible and stops whining in this thread.
This competition has already been going on for more than a month and a half and has not yet been completed. And with the second round, how long do you plan to hold it? For 2-3 months?
I think you might have misunderstood what Ratimov tried to say with that comment. I think he was commenting on how long the competitions might last in the future if a second round (playoff) were to be introduced.