# The Scottish Local Government Elections Order 2011, Paragraph 51: Exclusion of candidates


(1) If, one or more vacancies remain to be filled and—
(a) the returning officer has transferred all ballot papers which are required by rule 49 or this rule to be transferred; or
(b) there are no ballot papers to be transferred under rule 49 or this rule,
the returning officer shall exclude from the election at that stage the candidate with the then lowest number of votes.
(2) The returning officer shall sort the ballot papers for the candidate excluded under paragraph (1) into parcels so that they are grouped—
(a) according to the next available preference given on those papers; and
(b) where no such preference is given, as a parcel of non‑transferable papers.
(3) The returning officer shall, in accordance with this rule, transfer each parcel of ballot papers referred to in paragraph (2)(a) to the continuing candidate for whom the next available preference is given on those papers and shall credit such continuing candidates with an additional number of votes calculated in accordance with paragraph (4).
(4) The vote on each ballot paper transferred under paragraph (3) shall have a transfer value of one unless the vote was transferred to the excluded candidate in which case it shall have the same transfer value as when transferred to the candidate excluded under paragraph (1).
(5) This rule is subject to rule 53.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/sdsi/2011/9780111014639/schedule/1/paragraph/51 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-scottish-local-government-elections-order-2011/schedule-1/paragraph-51
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.