# The Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order 1999, Article 58: Right to send election address post free


(1) At a Scottish parliamentary election–
(a) each candidate, for return as a constituency member;
(b) each individual candidate for return as a regional member;
(c) the nominating officer of each registered political party which has submitted a regional list,
is entitled to send free of charge for postage either–
(i) one unaddressed postal communication, containing matter relating to the election only not exceeding 60 grammes in weight, to each place in the constituency or, in the case of an individual candidate for return as a regional member or a nominating officer of a registered party submitting a regional list for a particular region, each place in the region, which, in accordance with the Post Office Regulations 1987 (as applied and modified by paragraph (6) below) constitutes a delivery point for the purposes of this article; or
(ii) one such postal communication addressed to each elector.
(2) Any such candidate or, as the case may be, party’s nominating officer is also, subject as mentioned in paragraph (1) above, entitled to send free of any charge for postage to each person entered in the list of proxies for the election one such communication as mentioned in paragraph (1) above for each appointment in respect of which that person is so entered.
(3) A person shall not be deemed to be a candidate for return as a constituency member or to be an individual candidate for return as a regional member for the purposes of this article unless he is shown as standing nominated in the statement of persons nominated but until publication of that statement any person who declares himself to be such a candidate shall be entitled to exercise the right of free postage conferred by this article if he gives such security as may be required by the Post Office for the payment of postage should he not be shown as standing nominated as mentioned above.
(4) A registered party shall not be deemed to have submitted a regional list for the purposes of this article unless that party is shown as standing nominated in the statement published under rule 19 of the Scottish Parliamentary Election Rules but until the publication of that statement the nominating officer of a party which has submitted a regional list shall be entitled to exercise the right of free postage conferred by this article if he gives such security as may be required by the Post Office should the party not be shown as standing nominated as mentioned above.
(5) For the purposes of this article, “elector” means a person–
(a) who is registered as a local government elector in the constituency or region for which the election is to be held in the register to be used at the election; or
(b) who, pending the publication of that register appears in the electors' lists for such a register (as corrected by the registration officer) to be entitled to be so registered,
and accordingly includes a person shown in the register or electors lists as below voting age if it appears from that register or those lists that he will be of voting age on the day fixed for the poll, but not otherwise.
(6) The Post Office Regulations 1987 shall have effect in relation to a Scottish parliamentary election subject to the following modifications–
(a) in regulation 1, the reference to “section 91 of the Representation of the People Act 1983” shall be construed as a reference to this article;
(b) any reference to “constituency” shall–
(i) in relation to a candidate for return as a constituency member, be construed as a reference to a constituency for the purposes of the 1998 Act; and
(ii) in relation to a registered party’s nominating officer or individual candidate for return as a regional member be construed as a reference to a region for the purposes of the 1998 Act;
(c) a reference to “candidate” shall be construed as including a reference to a registered party’s nominating officer; and
(d) a reference to “the statement of persons nominated” in the case of an individual candidate for return as a regional member or a registered party’s nominating officer shall be construed as a reference to the statement published under rule 19 of the Scottish Parliamentary Election Rules.
(7) If the area of a regional returning officer is situated in the area of more than one Head Postmaster, the controlling Head Postmaster for the purposes of the Post Office Regulations 1987 as applied by paragraph (6) above shall be determined by that regional returning officer.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/787/article/58 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/scottish-parliament-elections-etc-order-1999/article-58
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.