Declaration
Once the provisional result in a Ward has been agreed, the Returning Officer (RO) will announce each result from the stage in the Penland suite. The RO will announce the number of Councillors to be elected, the turnout, the number of rejected votes and the quota of votes for a Candidate to be elected. The RO will then announce the number of first preference votes for each of the Candidates followed by the candidates who have been elected and at what stage they were elected.
Due to the number of Counts ongoing and the various announcements that need to be made, speeches will not be allowed by any candidates. There will be opportunities for all Candidates to speak to the media following the declarations.
Successful candidates
As soon as the result for each ward has been declared, successful candidates will be directed to the Board Room, behind main reception, to complete key paperwork. Staff will be on hand to assist successful candidates to the Board Room and the route from reception will be signposted for ‘Councillor Declarations and Photographs’.
The process will not take long and will include:
- Signing a “Declaration of Acceptance of Office” form: the declaration has to be signed before a successful candidate takes up their duties as an elected member of the Council
- Confirmation/collection of key personal information: to set successful candidates up without delay on key systems including IT and payroll we will need their home address (including postcode), date of birth, National Insurance Number and bank account details (account number, sort code and postal address). Candidates should bring this information with them to allow us to create a personal user account over the weekend so that successful candidates can access Council systems from Monday 8 May.
- Establishing email address preference: if there is already a user on the system with the same name then we will need to agree a modified address. We will inform successful candidates if this is the case.
Official photograph: official photographs of successful candidates will be taken and an identification pass will be issued that will give access to Council buildings. Please note that any political party identification or emblems will need to removed for photographs.