15. A candidate for election may withdraw before the last day of the election period by filing with the election coordinator a notice of withdrawal signed by the candidate and attested by the signatures of two witnesses.

16. If, on the day fixed as the close of nominations, only one candidate has been officially nominated in respect of an electoral district, the election coordinator shall without delay

• (a) notify the Corporation in writing that the candidate named in the nomination papers is elected by acclamation in respect of that electoral district; and

• (b) send a certified copy of the notice to that candidate.

17. The election coordinator shall, not later than 25 days before the last day of the election period, mail to each voter named in a voters list in respect of an electoral district

• (a) one ballot paper in a form approved by the Minister that

  • (i) contains the names of the candidates officially nominated for election in the electoral district, and

  • (ii) allows voters to indicate their numbered preferences for each of the candidates;

• (b) a copy of each page referred to in paragraph 11(1)(g); and

• (c) a postage-paid return envelope that is addressed to the election coordinator.

• 18. (1) At least fourteen days before the last day of the election period, a producer who may vote in a particular electoral district and who

  • (a) has not received a ballot may request one from the election coordinator; or

  • (b) has received a ballot in respect of another electoral district, if the ballot received in error is returned to the election coordinator, may request one from the election coordinator in respect of the electoral district in which the producer may vote.

• (2) If the election coordinator receives a request referred to in subsection (1), the election coordinator shall, without delay, furnish the voter with the ballot, pages and envelope referred to in section 17.

• 19. (1) To vote, a voter shall, in accordance with subsection (2), rank each candidate listed on the ballot paper in the order of the voter’s preference and return the ballot to the election coordinator in the envelope provided for that purpose on or before the last day of the election period.

• (2) The voter shall rank the candidates by marking in the space provided adjacent to the name of the voter’s most preferred candidate the number “1”, the number “2” for the second most preferred candidate and so on until the voter has completed the ranking of all candidates for whom the voter wishes to vote.

• (3) The election coordinator shall reject any ballots contained in an envelope that is postmarked after the last day of the election period.

• 20. (1) In this section the expression “majority of votes” means, in respect of any count, more than one half of the total number of votes cast in the electoral district, other than void votes, votes cast on rejected ballots or votes cast on exhausted ballots.

• (2) The election coordinator, in the presence of independent scrutineers appointed by the Minister, shall, in the following order,

  • (a) sort the ballots by electoral district;

  • (b) in respect of each electoral district

    • (i) exclude all rejected ballots,

    • (ii) count the number of first preferences recorded on the ballots for each candidate, excluding any void votes, and

    • (iii) declare as elected the candidate who obtains a majority of votes;

  • (c) if, after the count referred to in paragraph (b), no candidate has received a majority of votes,

    • (i) eliminate the candidate who received the least number of first preferences from any subsequent counts, and

    • (ii) count each vote counted as first preference to that candidate to the next candidate in the order of preference who is not eliminated; and

  • (d) repeat the method of vote counting described in paragraph (c) until one candidate has received a majority of votes.

• (3) Every ballot paper that is not a rejected ballot shall be considered in every count, unless it is exhausted in accordance with subsection (4).

• (4) A ballot paper is exhausted when all the candidates in respect of which a preference has been made are eliminated.

• (5) The election coordinator shall recount the ballots if the difference in the number of votes between the candidate who received a majority of votes and the candidate who finished second is equal to or less than one per cent of the total votes for each of the candidates who are not eliminated.

• (5.1) To conduct a recount of votes in an electoral district, the election coordinator shall manually re-examine each ballot and follow the procedure for counting set out in paragraphs (2)(b) to (d).

• (5.2) If, following a recount conducted by a computer, the number of votes between the candidate who received a majority of votes and the candidate who finished second is equal to or less than one per cent of the total votes for each of the candidates who are not eliminated, the election coordinator shall conduct a recount manually if the candidate who received the majority of votes or who finished second requires it.

• (5.3) For the purpose of declaring a candidate as elected after a recount, the election coordinator shall rely upon the results obtained by the use of a computer or, if a manual recount was conducted, the results of the manual recount.

• (6) The election coordinator, in the presence of the scrutineers, shall draw a name from a container to break a tie in votes cast for any candidates.