# The Northern Ireland (Elections) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2015, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Order)
Schedules 1 and 2 to the Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) Order 2001 (S.I. 2001/2599) (“the 2001 Order”) apply certain provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) (“the 1983 Act”) and the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1741) (“the 2008 Regulations”) to elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
This Order amends the 2001 Order and the 2008 Regulations so as to make changes to the rules relating to elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Article 2 is about the duty of the Chief Electoral Officer to maintain the electoral register, the rules about which are mainly contained in section 10A of the 1983 Act. Subsection (6) of that section requires the Chief Electoral Officer to update the register where (in particular) details have not been confirmed by the canvass. In certain circumstances (set out in section 46B of the 2008 Regulations), that requirement is deferred for two years. Article 2 extends this to three years.
Articles 3 to 5 make amendments to the 2001 Order. The substantive changes are as follows.
Article 4(3) and (9) ensures that no offence is committed where the Chief Electoral Officer makes a procedural error at an Assembly election but then remedies it in full.
Article 4(4) ensures that bank holidays are always disregarded when computing periods of time for the purposes of Assembly elections.
Article 4(5) preserves the existing rules on emblems on ballot papers.
Article 4(6) disapplies a reference to the rule (which applies for the purposes of Parliamentary elections but not Assembly elections) that ballot papers must begin to be counted 4 hours after the close of the poll.
Article 4(7) clarifies that the House of Commons does not have the power to require the retention of Assembly election ballot paper accounts etc.
Articles 4(8) and 5(2) and (3) make minor and technical changes to the provisions about proxy voting at Assembly elections.
An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2015/9780111140406/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-northern-ireland-elections-amendment-no-2-order-2015/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.