The European Parliamentary Elections (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2004

[F1 Interpretation of rules 53 to 63 N.I.

52.   In rules 53 to 63—

“continuing candidate” means any candidate not deemed to be elected and not excluded;

“count” means all the operations involved in the counting of the first preferences recorded for candidates, the transfer of the surpluses of elected candidates, and the transfer of the votes of excluded candidates;

“deemed to be elected” means deemed to be elected for the purposes of counting the votes but without prejudice to the declaration of the result of the poll;

“mark” means a figure, a word written in the English language or a mark such as “X”;

“non-transferable vote” means a ballot paper—

(a)

on which no second or subsequent preference is recorded for a continuing candidate, or

(b)

which is excluded by the returning officer under rule 59(4);

“preference” as used in the following contexts has the meaning assigned below—

(a)

“first preference” means the figure “1” or any mark which clearly indicates a first (or only) preference;

(b)

“next available preference” means a preference which is the second or, as the case may be, subsequent preference recorded in consecutive order for a continuing candidate (any candidate who is deemed to be elected or is excluded being ignored); and

(c)

in this context “second preference” is shown by the figure “2” or any mark which clearly indicates a second preference, a third preference by the figure “3” or any mark which clearly indicates a third preference, and so on;

“quota” means the number calculated in accordance with rule 56;

“stage of the count” means—

(a)

the determination of the first preference vote for each candidate; or

(b)

the transfer of a surplus of a candidate deemed to be elected; or

(c)

the exclusion of one or more candidates at any given time;

“surplus” means the number of votes by which the total number of votes for any candidate (whether first preference or transferred votes, or a combination of both) exceeds the quota; but references in these rules to the transfer of the surplus mean the transfer (at a transfer value) of all transferable papers from the candidate who has the surplus;

“transferable paper” means a ballot paper on which, following a first preference, a second preference or subsequent preference is recorded in consecutive numerical order for a continuing candidate;

“transferred vote” means a vote derived from a ballot paper on which a second or subsequent preference is recorded for the candidate to whom that paper has been transferred;

“transfer value” means the value of a transferred vote calculated in accordance with paragraph (4) or (7) of rule 57.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Sch. 1 substituted (27.3.2009) by The European Parliamentary Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/813), regs. 1(2), 38, Sch. 1