Presidential Elections Act, 1993
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Exclusion of candidate. |
51.—(1) Where, at the end of any count, no candidate has reached the quota and no candidate can be deemed to be elected under section 50 (4), the presidential returning officer shall direct the local returning officers to exclude the candidate credited with the lowest number of votes and transfer the candidate's ballot papers in accordance with the next available preferences recorded thereon for continuing candidates. | |
(2) Where the total of the votes of the 2 or more candidates credited with the lowest number of votes is less than the number of votes credited to the candidate credited with the next highest number of votes, the presidential returning officer shall direct under subsection (1) the exclusion of such 2 or more candidates and the transfer of their papers in one operation. | ||
(3) (a) If, where a candidate falls to be excluded under this section, 2 or more candidates each stand credited with the same number of votes being the lowest number of votes, regard shall be had to the number of original votes credited to each of those candidates, and the candidate to whom the lowest number of original votes was credited shall be excluded and, where the numbers of the original votes so credited are equal, regard shall be had to the total numbers of votes credited to those candidates at the first count at which they had unequal numbers of votes and the candidate to whom the lowest number of votes was credited at that count shall be excluded and, where the numbers of votes credited to those candidates were equal at all counts, the presidential returning officer shall exclude the candidate whose name is determined by lot. | ||
(b) For the purposes of paragraph (a), where the names concerned are written on similar slips of paper and the slips are folded so as to prevent identification and mixed and drawn at random, the name shall be deemed, in the order in which the slip bearing the name is drawn, to have been determined by lot. | ||
(4) On being so directed by the presidential returning officer pursuant to this section, each local returning officer shall— | ||
(a) exclude the candidate or candidates specified in the direction, examine all the papers of that candidate or those candidates, as the case may be, and arrange the transferable papers in sub-parcels according to the next available preference recorded on each paper for continuing candidates, | ||
(b) transfer each such sub-parcel to the candidate for whom the next available preferences are recorded in the papers concerned and place the sub-parcel on top of the parcel of papers of the candidate to whom the transfer is made, | ||
(c) make a separate sub-parcel of the non-transferable papers and set them aside as finally dealt with, and | ||
(d) forthwith notify the presidential returning officer, in such manner as may be directed by him, of the number of papers in the sub-parcel transferred to each continuing candidate and the number of non-transferable papers. | ||
(5) The presidential returning officer shall ascertain from the notifications received under this section from every local returning officer the total number of papers transferred to each continuing candidate under subsection (4) and shall credit the candidate with a number of votes equal to such number. |