12. —(1) The sealed ballot box containing postal and special voters ballot papers shall be opened, in the presence of agents and not less than 2 members of the returning officer or local returning officer's staff, not earlier than one hour before the conclusion of voting on polling day.

(2) The ballot papers extracted by the returning officer or local returning officer from the said ballot box shall be counted and their total number compared with the number shown in the appropriate ballot paper account prepared under section 76 of the Act of 1992 (as modified and applied to the Act of 1993 or Act of 1994) or Rule 39 of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1997 or Article 41 of the Regulations of 1995 as applied to this Part by a Schedule to this Act.

(3) The returning officer or local returning officer, while counting and recording the number of ballot papers, shall cause the said papers to be kept face upwards and shall take due precautions to prevent any person from seeing the numbers printed on the backs of the said papers.

(4) Section 48 of the Act of 1993, section 34 of the Act of 1994, Rule 82(2) to (4) of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1997 and Article 80(2) to (5) of the Regulations of 1995, as appropriate, shall apply to ballot papers dealt with under this section.

(5) The returning officer or local returning officer shall reject any of the ballot papers that are invalid and before commencing the entry of ballot paper preferences, the returning officer or local returning officer shall operate the voting machine in his or her charge, which shall have a cartridge or disc installed in it in accordance with section 8, to demonstrate to such persons as are present that no votes are cast or recorded on the voting machine. The returning officer or local returning officer shall cause a printed statement to be produced by the voting machine showing the names of the candidates on the ballot paper at the election or the two questions on the ballot paper in the case of a referendum and that no votes are cast or recorded on the machine. The returning officer or local returning officer shall then in the presence of agents and not less than 2 members of his or her staff enter the preferences shown on the postal and special voters ballot papers on the ballot paper displayed on the voting machine. After a vote preference or preferences has or have been entered on the said ballot paper from each postal or special voter ballot paper, the returning officer or local returning officer shall then press the cast vote button on the voting machine.

(6) On completion of the entry of the votes in the voting machine, the returning officer or local returning officer shall cause a printed statement to be produced by the machine showing the list of candidates on the ballot paper at the election or the questions on the ballot paper in the case of a referendum and the number of votes recorded.

(7) The statements produced under subsections (5) and (6) shall be signed by the returning officer or local returning officer or a person authorised by him or her and witnessed by an agent or if no agent is present by another person present.

(8) The returning officer or local returning officer shall extract the cartridge or disc from the voting machine and retain it, together with statements produced by the voting machine, in a sealed envelope until the counting of votes commences in accordance with section 13.

(9) On completion of the activity referred to in subsection (8), the returning officer or local returning officer shall place in separate sealed packets—

(a) the postal and special voters ballot papers, and

(b) the ballot papers rejected under subsection (5),

and shall mark on each packet particulars of its contents, the date of the polling day at the election or referendum and the constituency or local electoral area to which it relates and such packets shall be retained and accounted for together with other election or referendum documents specified in the relevant Act or Regulations.

(10) If, for whatever reason, the voting machine concerned fails to produce the printed statement referred to in subsection (5) or (6), the information that would have been recorded in that statement, being information displayed on the voting machine's display screen, together with any other information specified by the form to be entered on it, shall be entered on a form directed by the Minister for the purposes of this subsection. The form shall be signed by the returning officer or local returning officer and witnessed by an agent or if no agent is present by another person present.