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European Assembly Elections Act 1978

Consolidated Text As Enacted Cited in Amendments 135 Related
Vincent
JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1978 c. 10
Year1978
  • This Act makes provision for the election in the United Kingdom of Members of the European Parliament (“
    • (1) The United Kingdom shall be divided into electoral regions.(2) England shall be divided into nine electoral regions.(3) Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland shall each constitute a single electoral region.71 shall be elected for electoral regions in England,8 shall be elected for Scotland,5 shall be elected for Wales, and3 shall be elected for Northern Ireland.(5) Schedule 2 (which sets out the electoral regions in England and makes provision for the number of MEPs to be elected for each region) shall have effect.(1) The system of election in an electoral region in Great Britain shall be a regional list system complying with the following conditions.(2) A vote may be cast for a registered party, or an individual candidate, named on the ballot paper.(3) The first seat shall be allocated to the party or individual candidate with the greatest number of votes.(4) The second and subsequent seats shall be allocated in the same way, except that the number of votes given to a party to which one or more seats have already been allocated shall be divided by the number of seats allocated plus one.a party to which there has already been allocated a number of seats equal to the number of names on the party’s list of candidates, andan individual candidate to whom a seat has already been allocated.(6) Seats allocated to a party shall be filled by the persons named on the party’s list of candidates in the order in which they appear on that list.(7) For the purposes of subsections (3) and (4) fractions shall be taken into account.“registered party” means F5a party registered under Part II of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000;a reference to a party’s “list of candidates” is a reference to the list submitted in accordance with regulations made as required by paragraph 2(3B) of Schedule 1.(a) a vote is capable of being given so as to indicate the voter’s order of preference for the candidates, andwhen the vote is not required to give a prior choice the necessary quota of votes, orwhen, owing to the deficiency in the number of votes given for a prior choice, that choice is eliminated from the list of candidates.
  • Schedule 1 (which makes supplementary provision about the holding of elections, the filling of vacancies, and disqualification) shall have effect.
    • (1) A person shall be entitled to vote as an elector at a European Parliamentary election in an electoral region if he is within any of subsections (2) to (5) below.the address in respect of which he is registered in the relevant register of parliamentary electors is within the electoral region, orhis registration in the relevant register of parliamentary electors results from an overseas elector’s declaration which specifies an address within the electoral region.he is a peer who on the day of the poll would be entitled to vote at a local government election in an electoral area wholly or partly comprised in the electoral region, andthe address in respect of which he is registered in the relevant register of local government electors is within the electoral region.(4) A person is within this subsection if he is entitled to vote in the electoral region by virtue of section 3(2) to (9) of the Representation of the People Act 1985 (peers resident outside the United Kingdom) .(5) A person is within this subsection if he is entitled to vote in the electoral region by virtue of F20the European Parliamentary Elections (Franchise of Relevant Citizens of the Union) Regulations 2001 (relevant citizens of the European Union) .(6) Subsection (1) shall have effect subject to any provision of regulations made under paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 which provides for alterations made after a specified date in a register of electors to be disregarded.(7) In subsection (3) “local government election” includes a municipal election in the City of London (that is, an election to the office of mayor, alderman, common councilman or sheriff and also the election of any officer elected by the mayor, aldermen and liverymen in common hall) .(1) The poll at each general election of MEPs shall be held on a day appointed by order of the Secretary of State.(2) A statutory instrument made under this section shall be laid before Parliament after being made.(1) Without prejudice to any enactment relating to voting offences as applied by regulations under this Act to elections of F6MEPs held in the United Kingdom, a person shall be guilty of an offence if, on any occasion when under Article 9 elections to the Assembly are held in all the member States, he votes otherwise than as a proxy more than once in those elections, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.(2) The provisions of the F7Representation of the People Act 1983 as applied by regulations under this Act shall have effect in relation to an offence under this section as they have effect in relation to an offence under F8section 61(2) of that Act (double voting) ; and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, F9section 61(7) of that Act (which makes such an offence an illegal practice but allows any incapacity resulting from conviction to be mitigated by the convicting court) and F10section 178 of

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