The European Parliamentary Elections Regulations 1999

PART I GENERAL

Citation, commencement and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the European Parliamentary Elections Regulations 1999.

(2) These Regulations shall come into force on the fifth day after the day on which they are made.

(3) These Regulations shall not extend to Northern Ireland.

Interpretation

2.  Unless the context otherwise requires, in these Regulations and in any provision applied by these Regulations–

“1978 Act” means the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1978;

“1983 Act” means the Representation of the People Act 1983(1);

“1985 Act” means the Representation of the People Act 1985(2);

“1986 Regulations” means the Representation of the People Regulations 1986(3);

“1986 (Scotland) Regulations” means the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 1986(4);

“1994 Regulations” means the European Parliamentary Elections (Changes to the Franchise and Qualification of Representatives) Regulations 1994(5);

“citizen of the Union” shall be construed in accordance with Article 8.1 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (as amended by Title II of the Treaty on European Union), and “relevant citizen of the Union” means such a citizen who is not a Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland;

“elections rules” and “parliamentary elections rules” mean the rules in Schedule 1 to the 1983 Act, as applied by regulation 3 of, and Schedule 1 to, these Regulations;

“European Parliamentary overseas elector” means a person falling within section 3C(4) of the 1978 Act(6);

“European Parliamentary overseas elector’s declaration” means a declaration made in pursuance of section 2 of the 1985 Act, as applied by regulation 14 of, and Schedule 3 to, the 1986 Regulations or regulation 13 of, and Schedule 3 to, the 1986 (Scotland) Regulations;

“list” means a list of candidates submitted by a registered party to accompany its nomination for election;

“local returning officer” means the person who is, in relation to a parliamentary election–

(a)

in England and Wales, the acting returning officer, or

(b)

in Scotland, the returning officer;

and, as respects any parliamentary constituency for which he acts, includes any person designated as a returning officer for the European Parliamentary electoral region;

“national election agent” means a person appointed under regulation 10 below;

“nominating officer” means the person registered under the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998(7) as the officer with responsibility for the matters referred to in paragraph 5(2) of Schedule 1 to that Act in respect of a registered party;

“overseas elector” means a person falling within subsection (2) of section 3C of the 1978 Act by virtue of paragraph (b) of that subsection;

“overseas elector’s declaration” has the meaning given in section 2 of the 1985 Act;

“register of electors” means any part of–

(a)

a register of parliamentary or, in the case of peers, local government electors,

(b)

a register under section 3 of the 1985 Act, and

(c)

a register under regulation 9 of the 1994 Regulations,

in force within an electoral region at the time of a European Parliamentary election in that region;

“registered party” means a party registered under the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998; and

“registration officer” means an officer appointed under section 8 of the 1983 Act(8).

(1)

1983 c. 2.

(2)

1985 c. 50.

(3)

S.I. 1986/1081.

(4)

S.I. 1986/1111 (S.93).

(5)

S.I. 1994/342.

(6)

Section 3C was substituted by section 1 of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999.

(7)

1998 c. 48.

(8)

Section 8 was amended by Schedule 16 to the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (c. 19) and Schedule 13 to the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (c. 39).