318   Lapsed or void election

(1)  If an election for a civic office is not held when it is due, fails or is later declared void:

(a)  the holder of the civic office at the time when the election should have been held or when the election failed (or, in the case of a void election, if there is no such holder, the candidate purporting to have been elected at the void election), holds the office as if duly elected until an election is held under paragraph (b), and

(b)  the returning officer is to hold another election as if a casual vacancy had occurred in the civic office.

(2)  An election held for the purposes of this section is as valid as it would have been if it had been held at the time originally appointed for the purpose.