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 referred to in subsection (2) of section 45 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) For the purpose of this section. the counting officer shall not count
| | (a) where there are three candidates, the second preference cast in favour of any candidate; and | | |
| | (b) where there are more than three candidates, the second and third preferences cast in favour of any candidate. | | |
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| (6) The counting officer shall not count the tendered ballot papers but shall place them in separate packets according to the candidates and shall mark each packet with the name of the candidate, and hand over such packets to the returning officer. For the purpose of this subsection the second and third preferences cast in favour of any candidate shall not be taken into account. |
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| (7) 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