13.— The Second Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 is amended—

(a) in rule 17—

(i) in paragraph (a)(i) by substituting “six” for “four”, and

(ii) in paragraph (a)(ii) by substituting “four” for “three”,

and

(b) in rule 88 by substituting the following paragraph for paragraph (3):

“(3) When the last vacancies can be filled under this rule, no further transfer of votes shall be made unless any of the continuing candidates has not been credited with a number of votes exceeding one quarter of the quota and it is necessary for the purposes of section 21 of the Electoral Act 1997 or section 13A(1)(e) to make such transfer in order to establish whether such a number of votes could be credited to that candidate.”.