SCHEDULE 5Assembly election rules

PART 3Contested elections

Action to be taken before the poll

Appointment of presiding officers and clerks35

1

At an Assembly election the constituency returning officer shall appoint and pay a presiding officer to attend at each polling station and such clerks as may be necessary for the purposes of the election, but he shall not appoint any person who has been employed by or on behalf of—

a

a candidate; or

b

a registered political party,

in or about the election.

2

At a regional election the regional returning officer shall appoint and pay such clerks as may be necessary for the purposes of the election, but he shall not appoint any person who has been employed in the circumstances described in paragraph (1)(a) or (b).

3

The constituency returning officer may, if he thinks fit, preside at a polling station and the provisions of these rules relating to a presiding officer shall apply to a constituency returning officer so presiding with the necessary modifications as to things to be done by the constituency returning officer to the presiding officer or by the presiding officer to the constituency returning officer.

4

A presiding officer may do, by the clerks appointed to assist him, any act (including the asking of questions) which he is required or authorised by these rules to do at a polling station except order the arrest, exclusion or removal of any person from the polling station.