Attendance at local count
40.—(1) As soon as practicable after the close of the poll, the CRO shall make arrangements for carrying out, in the presence of the counting agents appointed for the purposes of the election—
(a)where the election is at an ordinary election, the separation and verification of the ballot papers and the counting of the votes cast in the constituency at the election;
(b)where the election is not at an ordinary election, the counting of the votes cast in the constituency at the election,
and he shall give to those agents notice in writing of the time and place at which he will begin to carry out those tasks, or as the case may be, that task.
(2) No person other than—
(a)the CRO and his clerks,
(b)the candidates and their husbands or wives,
(c)the election agents,
(d)the counting agents,
may be present at a local count, unless permitted by the CRO to attend.
(3) A person not entitled to attend a local count shall not be permitted to do so by the CRO unless he—
(a)is satisfied that the efficient counting of the votes will not be impeded; and
(b)has either consulted the election agents or thought it impracticable to do so.
(4) The CRO shall give the counting agents all such reasonable facilities for overseeing the proceedings, and all such information with respect to them, as he can give them consistently with the orderly conduct of the proceedings and the discharge of his duties in connection with them.
(5) In particular, where the votes are counted by sorting the ballot papers according to the candidate for whom the vote is given and then counting the number of ballot papers for each candidate, the counting agents shall be entitled to satisfy themselves that the ballot papers are correctly sorted.