50.
| (1) The counting officer shall commence the counting of votes after he has received all the ballot boxes from every polling station assigned to his counting centre under section 48. |
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| (2) Before the counting officer proceeds to count the votes he or a person authorized by him shall, in the presence of such of the counting agents as attend
| | (a) show such counting agents the ballot paper account and permit them to take copies thereof; and | | |
| | (b) open each ballot box, and having taken out the ballot papers therein, count and record the number of such papers in each such box and then mix together the whole of the papers contained in the ballot boxes. | | |
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| (3) The counting officer, while counting the votes, shall keep the ballot papers with their faces upwards and take all proper precautions for preventing any person from seeing the numbers printed on the reverse of such papers. |
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| (4) The counting officer shall as far as practicable proceed continuously with counting the votes and shall endorse " rejected" on any ballot paper which he may reject as invalid. |
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| (5) The counting officer shall not count the tendered bal lot papers but shall place them in separate packets according to the recognized political party or independent group they support and shall mark each packet with the name of such party or the words "Independent Group" and the distinguishing number if any of such group, as the case may be, and hand over such packet to the returning officer. |
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| (6) The counting officer, his assistants and clerks and the counting agents but no other person except with the consent of the counting officer may be present at the counting of the votes. |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts