Returning Officer - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition returning-officer

Definition :

Returning Officer, the official who conducts an election. The Representation of the People Act, 1918, s. 28, provides that in parliamentary elections the sheriff shall be the returning officer in counties, and in parliamentary boroughs which have a sheriff and in other boroughs the mayor, or in some cases the chairman of the council. As to returning officers at university elections, see Sch. V., Part I., s. 1. As to county council, municipal, parish council, rural district, and urban district elections, see the same Act as amended by the (English) R.P. Act, 1922, and (English) Local Government Act, 1933.

The same Acts provide that the duties of the return-ing officer are to be discharged by the registration officer (see REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS). In parliamentary elections the returning officer, if registered, is to have the casting vote but no other vote, by the Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 84)