Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947

General Provisions as to Contested Elections.

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

48 No returning officer or officer appointed under this Schedule or any partner or clerk of any such officer shall act as a polling or counting agent.

49 No person shall be appointed to act as an officer under this Part of this Schedule for the purposes of an election who has been employed by or on behalf of a candidate in or about the election.

50 A presiding officer may by the officers appointed to assist him do any act which he is required or authorised by this Part of this Schedule to do at a polling station except ordering the arrest, exclusion or removal of any person from the polling station.

51 A candidate may himself do any act or thing which an agent of his, if appointed, would have been authorised or required to do or may assist his agent in doing any such act or thing, but before acting under this paragraph the candidate shall make the declaration of secrecy required to be made by agents. Where a candidate has no agent for the purposes of any of the paragraphs of this Schedule, any notice under any such paragraph shall be given to the candidate.

52 Where in this Part of this Schedule any act or thing is required or authorised to be done in the presence of the agents of the candidates, the non-attendance of any agents or agent at the time and place appointed for the purpose shall not, if the act or thing is otherwise duly done, invalidate the act or thing done.