Seventh Schedule Conduct of Legislative Assembly elections

(Section 29)

Part 1 Method of voting

1 At a poll for the election of a Member of the Legislative Assembly, a voter shall be required to record his vote for 1 candidate and no more but shall be permitted to record his vote for as many more candidates as he pleases, so as to indicate in such manner as may be provided by law the candidates for whom he votes and the order of his preferences for them.

Part 2 Counting of votes at elections

(1) In this Part of this Schedule:
continuing candidate, in relation to a count, means a candidate not excluded at a previous count.
returning officer means a person for the time being appointed by law to conduct an election of a Member of the Legislative Assembly.

(2) A reference in this Part of this Schedule to an exhausted ballot-paper in relation to any count is a reference to a ballot-paper on which there is not recorded a vote for a continuing candidate.

(3) For the purposes of subclause (2) of this clause, where:
(a) the same preference (other than a first preference) has been recorded on a ballot-paper for more than 1 candidate, the ballot-paper shall be treated as if those preferences and any subsequent preferences had not been recorded on the ballot-paper, or

(b) there is a break in the order of preferences recorded on a ballot-paper, the ballot-paper shall be treated as if any subsequent preference had not been recorded on the ballot-paper.

3 The method of counting the votes to ascertain the result of an election of a Member of the Legislative Assembly shall be as provided in this Part of this Schedule.

4 At the close of the poll the returning officer shall ascertain the total number of first preference votes recorded for each candidate on all ballot-papers not rejected by him as informal.

5 If a candidate has a majority of the first preference votes, he shall be elected.

6 If no candidate is elected under clause 5, the returning officer shall make a second count.

(1) On the second count, the candidate who has the fewest first preference votes shall be excluded, and each of his ballot-papers that is not exhausted shall be transferred to the candidate next in the order of the voter’s preference and counted to him as a vote.

(2) If, on the second count, a candidate has a majority of the votes remaining in the count, he shall be elected.

(1) If, on the second count, no candidate has a majority of the votes remaining in the count, the process of excluding the candidate who has the fewest votes, transferring each of his ballot-papers that is not exhausted to the continuing candidate next in the order of the voter’s preference and counting it to him as a vote shall be repeated by the returning officer until 1 candidate has a majority of the votes remaining in the count.

(2) The candidate who, in accordance with subclause (1) of this clause, has a majority of the votes remaining in the count shall be elected.

9 Notwithstanding clause 7 (1) or 8 (1), the process of transferring to a continuing candidate each of the ballot-papers that is not exhausted and counting it to him as a vote shall not be repeated where there is only 1 continuing candidate, but that 1 continuing candidate shall be elected.

(1) Where, on any count at which the candidate with the fewest number of votes has to be excluded, 2 or more candidates have an equal number of votes (that number being fewer than the number of votes that any other candidate has or those candidates being the only continuing candidates):
(a) such one of those candidates as had the fewest number of votes at the last count at which they did not have an equal number of votes shall be excluded, or

(b) if they had an equal number of votes at all preceding counts, the candidate whose name is on a slip drawn in accordance with subclause (2) of this clause shall be excluded.

(2) For the purposes of subclause (1) of this clause, the names of the candidates who have an equal number of votes having been written on similar slips of paper by the returning officer and the slips having been folded by him so as to prevent the names being seen and having been mixed, 1 of those slips shall be drawn at random by him.