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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I am not going to get into what may or may not be an offence. The hon. Gentleman may well be right. I thought that he was citing the situation whereby people have referred to results before the result was declared, which is clearly more significant. Because of the nature of the alternative vote, one cannot just wait until the final result but must say what is going on at each stage. The Bill makes it clear that that will be publicly declared so that everybody knows what is going on. The hon. Gentleman alluded to the recount rules in the schedule, which make it clear that at any stage"““a candidate or candidate's election agent…may request the returning officer to have the votes re-counted””." In the same way as under our current rules, that would be not a demand but a request that could be made. It would ultimately be up to the returning officer to grant it, unless they thought it unreasonable. Of course, the returning officer themselves could choose to have a recount if they thought there were problems with how the count had progressed. I think those were the only issues that the hon. Gentleman raised, unless I missed any. I therefore hope that the amendments will be accepted. Amendment 198 agreed to. Amendments made: 199, page 147, line 19, at end insert—