EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order amends the Scottish Local Government Elections Order 2011 (“the principal Order”).
Article 2(2) amends article 5 of the principal Order to insert a further amendment to the Representation of the People (Postal Voting for Local Government Elections) (Scotland) Regulations 2007, in consequence of updated material in the principal Order. It also makes a minor correction to one of the amendments contained in article 5.
Article 2(3) amends rule 61 of Schedule 1 to the principal Order to provide that information relating to postal votes is to be treated in the same way as polling station information. This means that where less than 200 postal votes are received in a ward, the information relating to those votes shall be aggregated with the information from at least one of the polling stations within that ward, so that the aggregated information will include no less than 200 votes. This is to protect the secrecy of individual votes should a low number of postal votes be cast in a ward. The publication requirements are simplified by removing material which is already published at ward level (under rule 56 of the principal Order) and which it is onerous to produce at polling station level.