34.
| (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 32. |
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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 observers as attend
| | (a) show such counting observers 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 ballot papers but shall place them in separate packets according to the answer given. |
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| (6) The counting officer, his assistants and clerks and the counting observers 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