European Assembly Elections Act, 1977

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Returning officers and local returning officers.

14.—(1) The Minister shall for the purposes of this Act appoint a returning officer in respect of each constituency specified in the Second Schedule to this Act and the returning officer appointed under this section for such a constituency shall be one of the persons who by virtue of subsection (2) of this section is the local returning officer for a county or county borough contained in the constituency.

(2) There shall for the purposes of this Act be a local returning officer for every county or county borough contained in a constituency and the local returning officer shall be—

(a) in the case of a county or county borough for which there is a sheriff, the sheriff, and

(b) in every other case, the county registrar.

(3) It shall be the general duty of the returning officer to do all such acts and things, other than acts or things which are by this Act required to be done by a local returning officer, as may be necessary for effectually conducting an Assembly election in his constituency in accordance with this Act, to ascertain and declare the results of the election and to furnish to the chief returning officer a return of the persons elected for the constituency.

(4) Subject to subsection (5) (a) of this section, it shall be the duty of a local returning officer,

(a) to take the poll at an Assembly election in the part of the constituency for which he is the local returning officer,

(b) to do such acts and things as he is otherwise by this Act required to do, and

(c) to render such assistance to the returning officer for the said constituency as that returning officer may require,

and if any doubt arises as to the duties of a local returning officer, the doubt shall be determined by the Minister.

(5) (a) Where a local returning officer is appointed under this section to be the returning officer for a constituency, it shall be lawful for him with the consent of the Minister to appoint a deputy local returning officer for the discharge of all or any particular part of his duties as local returning officer.

(b) Subsequent references in this Act to the local returning officer shall include references to deputy local returning officers.

(6) The Minister for Finance shall prepare a scale of maximum charges for returning officers and local returning officers and every returning officer and local returning officer shall be paid by the said Minister out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof his reasonable charges, in respect of his services and expenses in relation to every Assembly election in respect of which he is the returning officer or local returning officer, not exceeding the maximum charges specified in the scale prepared under this section and applying for the time being.

(7) Any reference in this section to a county shall be construed as a reference to an administrative county.