Local Government (No. 2) Act 2003

Amendment of Local Elections Regulations 1995.

6.—The Local Elections Regulations 1995 ( S.I. No. 297 of 1995 ) are amended—

(a) by deleting “Fourth” in paragraph (aa) of article 51(2), (inserted by section 54 (b)(ii) of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001 ),

(b) by deleting in article 80(1) “the candidates shall in the case of election be determined to be elected in the order in which their names are drawn,” in the definition of “determine by lot”,

(c) by deleting article 88, (substituted by section 54 (k) of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001 ),

(d) by substituting in article 124(1) “Subject to article 125, where” for “Where”,

(e) by substituting the following article for article 125:

“Person elected for more than one local authority.

125.—(1) Where, at an election, a person is elected as a member for two or more local authorities and section 14 of the Local Government Act 2001 would be applicable to such person, then the person shall, within the period of three days after the return is made of persons elected to be members of those local authorities, by notice in writing signed by the person and delivered to the clerk or secretary of each of those local authorities, declare which one of those authorities the person chooses to represent, and if such declaration is not so delivered within the said period, the person shall, at the end of the said period, be deemed to have chosen to represent the local authority of the local electoral area in respect of which the person received the greatest number of first preference votes.

(2) In cases where the person is elected with an equal number of first preference votes in two or more local electoral areas at elections in two or more local authorities, regard shall be had to the total numbers of votes credited to the elected member at the first count in those elections at which the member had an unequal number of votes and the local authority at which the member has the highest number of votes at that count shall be deemed to have been chosen. Where the numbers of votes credited to the member were equal at all counts at the elections, the returning officer of the local authority where the member ordinarily resides or who is designated by the Minister shall determine by lot which of the local authorities the elected member shall be deemed to have chosen, that is to say by—

(a) writing the names of the local authorities concerned on similar slips of paper,

(b) folding those slips so as to prevent identification, and

(c) mixing and drawing at random those slips,

and the local authority whose name is so first drawn shall be the local authority deemed to have been chosen.

(3) Where, in pursuance of this article, a person chooses, or is deemed to have chosen, to represent a particular local authority, the person shall be deemed not to have been elected for any other local authority and the consequential vacancy or vacancies in the membership of the other local authority shall be regarded as casual vacancies occurring on the day on which the newly-elected members come into office under section 17 of the Local Government Act 2001 and shall be filled accordingly.

(4) Where, under this article, a member chooses or is deemed to have chosen a local authority to represent and that member has been elected for more than one local electoral area for that authority, article 124 shall apply as to the area to be represented by the member.”.