11(1)A counting officer shall, in accordance with any directions given by his Chief Counting Officer, appoint persons to observe the counting of the votes and the verification of the ballot paper accounts.
(2)No person may attend the counting of votes for any voting area unless he is—
(a)the counting officer for that area or a person appointed by him under rule 26 of the Parliamentary Elections Rules as applied by paragraph 13 below,
(b)a Chief Counting Officer,
(c)the Member of Parliament for a constituency wholly or partly within that area,
(d)an observer appointed by the counting officer for that area under sub-paragraph (1), or
(e)permitted by the counting officer for that area to attend the count.
(3)A counting officer shall give observers such reasonable facilities for observing the proceedings, and all such information with respect to them, as he can give them consistently with the orderly conduct of the proceedings and the discharge of his duties in connection with them.
(4)Before a counting officer makes a certification under section 1(6)(b) or 2(6)(b), or makes any public announcement as to the result of the count, he shall consult his Chief Counting Officer who may direct him to recount—
(a)the ballot papers, or
(b)in the case of the referendum in Scotland, either or both of the forms of ballot paper.
(5)In this paragraph “voting area” means a local government area in Scotland or a county or county borough in Wales.
12A counting officer shall, as soon as possible after his Chief Counting Officer has made the certification required by section 1(7) or 2(7), forward to the Secretary of State—
(a)the packets of ballot papers in his possession,
(b)the ballot paper accounts and the statements of rejected ballot papers and of the result of the verification of the ballot paper accounts,
(c)the tendered votes lists, the lists of blind voters assisted by companions, the lists of votes marked by the presiding officer and the related statements, and the declarations made by the companions of blind voters,
(d)the packets of counterfoils and certificates as to employment on duty on the day of the poll, and
(e)the packets containing marked copies of registers and of lists of proxies,
endorsing on each packet a description of its contents and the name of the area for which the counting officer was appointed.