3(1)At a meeting of the council the chairman of the council, if present, shall preside.N.I.
(2)If the chairman of the council is absent from a meeting of the council, the vice-chairman of the council, if present, shall preside.
(3)If both the chairman and the vice-chairman of the council are absent from a meeting of the council, such councillor as the councillors present may choose shall preside.
[F1(4)Nothing in this paragraph shall authorise any councillor to preside at so much of any meeting of the council during which the business of the election of a chairman or of a vice-chairman is transacted where that councillor is a candidate for election to the office of chairman or, as the case may be, of vice-chairman.]