Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

The following people are entitled by law to attend the verification and count: 

• you and your staff
• the RRO and their staff
• each party list and individual candidate (and one other person chosen by each of them) 
• election agents (or a sub-agent on their behalf)1
• counting agents
• Electoral Commission representatives
• accredited observers
• any other person permitted by you, as CRO, to attend2
  • you need to be satisfied that any person permitted by you to attend will not impede the efficient verification or counting of votes and you have either consulted the election agents in advance or decided it impracticable to do so3

You should take all necessary steps to ensure that anyone attending does not interfere with or compromise the secrecy of the vote. You are legally required to make such arrangements as you think fit to ensure that all attendees are provided with a copy of the secrecy requirements.4

You can find the secrecy requirements in the verification and count section of our resource page.

You have a legal duty to give counting agents reasonable facilities for overseeing the verification and counting of the votes.5 This should include considering the accessibility of the venue and areas in use for key processes. You should ensure that anyone else who is entitled to attend has an unrestricted view of the proceedings, while also ensuring that they will not be able to interfere with the work of your staff.

There is no requirement for those attending to arrive by a certain time. You should have processes in place so those entitled to attend should be admitted whenever they arrive. This process should also allow any attendee who wishes to leave and return to do so.