F1SCHEDULE 2ABSENT VOTING

PART 1ENTITLEMENT

Manner of voting at European Parliamentary elections

2.

(1)

This paragraph applies to determine the manner of voting of a person entitled to vote as an elector at a European Parliamentary election.

(2)

He may vote in person at his allotted polling station, unless he is entitled as an elector to an absent vote at the election.

(3)

He may vote by post if he is entitled as an elector to vote by post at the election.

(4)

If he is entitled to vote by proxy at the election, he may so vote unless, before a ballot paper has been issued for him to vote by proxy, he applies at the polling station allotted to him under European Parliamentary elections rules for a ballot paper for the purpose of voting in person, in which case he may vote in person there.

(5)

If—

(a)

he is not entitled as an elector to an absent vote at the election, but

(b)

he cannot reasonably be expected to go in person to the allotted polling station by reason of the particular circumstances of his employment, either as a constable or by the local returning officer, on the date of the poll for a purpose connected with the election,

he may vote in person at any polling station in the local counting area.

F2(5A)

In the application of sub-paragraph (5) to an election in England or Wales, a reference to a constable includes a person designated as a community support officer under section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002 (police powers for civilian staff).

(6)

Nothing in the preceding provisions of this paragraph applies to a person to whom section 7 of the 1983 Act (residence: patients in mental hospitals who are not detained offenders or on remand) or, in Gibraltar, paragraph 10 of Schedule 4 to these Regulations applies and who is liable, by virtue of any enactment, to be detained in the mental hospital in question, whether he is registered by virtue of that provision or not; and such a person may vote—

(a)

in person (where he is granted permission to be absent from the hospital and voting in person does not breach any condition attached to that permission), or

(b)

by post or by proxy (where he is entitled as an elector to vote by post or, as the case may be, by proxy at the election).

(7)

Nothing in the preceding provisions of this paragraph applies to a person to whom section 7A of the 1983 Act (residence: persons remanded in custody etc.) or in Gibraltar, paragraph 11 of Schedule 4 to these Regulations applies, whether he is registered by virtue of that provision or not; and such a person may only vote by post or by proxy (where he is entitled as an elector to vote by post or, as the case may be, by proxy at the election).

(8)

Sub-paragraph (2) does not prevent a person, at his allotted polling station, marking a tendered ballot paper in pursuance of rule 44(4) or (6) of the European Parliamentary elections rules.

(9)

For the purposes of the provisions of–

(a)

these Regulations, and

(b)

the 1983 Act, the 2002 Act and the 2003 Act,

a person entitled to vote as an elector at a European Parliamentary election is entitled as an elector to vote by post or entitled to vote by proxy at the election if sub-paragraph (10) or (11) (as the case may be) applies to him in relation to that election; and references in those provisions to entitlement as an elector to an absent vote at a European Parliamentary election are references to entitlement as an elector to vote by post or entitlement to vote by proxy at the election.

(10)

This sub-paragraph applies to a person who is shown in the postal voters list mentioned in paragraph 5(2) as entitled to vote by post at an election.

(11)

This sub-paragraph applies to a person who is shown in the list of proxies mentioned in paragraph 5(3) as entitled to vote by proxy at an election.