71.—(1) Where a person has been declared by others to be a candidate at a PCC election without the person's consent, nothing in this Part is to be construed as imposing any liability on that person, unless the person has afterwards assented to the declaration or has been nominated.
(2) Nothing in this Part makes it illegal for an employer to permit electors or proxies for an elector to absent themselves from the employer's employment for a reasonable time for the purpose of voting at the poll at a PCC election without having any deduction from their salaries or wages on account of their absence, if the permission—
(a)is (so far as practicable without injury to the employer's business) given equally to all persons alike who are at the time in the employment, and
(b)is not given with a view to inducing any person to record the person's vote for any particular candidate at the election, and
(c)is not refused to any person for the purpose of preventing the recording of the person's vote for any particular candidate at the election,
but this paragraph is not to be construed as making illegal any act which would not be illegal apart from this paragraph.