(1)Where information is given toF1 [F2 the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland] that any electoral misdemeanour has occurred in reference to any election, it shall be his duty to make such inquiries and institute such prosecutions as the circumstances of the case appear to him to require.
(2)A prosecution byF1 [F2 the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland] for any offence punishable summarily committed in reference to a local election may be instituted before any court of summary jurisdiction in the county in which the local government electoral area for which the election was held is situate or which it adjoins, and the offence shall be deemed for all purposes to have been committed within the jurisdiction of that court.
(3)There shall be allowed toF1 [F2 the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland] for the purposes of Part IX and this Part other than his general duties under sub-section (1) such allowances for expenses as the Ministry of FinanceF3 may approve.
(4)The costs incurred in defraying the expenses ofF1 [F2 the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland] incurred for the said purposes shall, in the first instance, be paid by the Ministry of Finance,F3 and so far as they are not in the case of any prosecution paid by the defendant shall be deemed to be expenses of the election court; but the court if for any reasonable cause it seems just so to do, may order all or part of the said costs to be repaid to the Ministry of FinanceF3 by the parties to the petition, or such of them as the court may direct.[F4 In respect of the costs of an election petition relating to a a local election, this subsection shall have effect as if the words so far as they are not in the case of any prosecution paid by the defendant were omitted.]