Election of Chief Secretary and Deputy Chief Secretary

“4. (1) At the inaugural meeting of the Assembly referred to in Standing Order No. 3 (1) (Election of a Presiding Officer) as soon as the Presiding Officer has been appointed, the Assembly shall proceed to the election of a Chief Secretary and a Deputy Chief Secretary except that no Assemblyman shall nominate more than one candidate for the same office, whether as proposer or seconder.

(2) An Assemblyman, having first ascertained that the Assemblyman to be proposed, is willing to serve if elected, may propose any Assemblyman as Chief Secretary or Deputy Chief Secretary and if that proposal be seconded, the Presiding Officer, if no other Assemblyman so proposed and seconded to be the Chief Secretary or Deputy Chief Secretary as the case may be.

(3) If more than one Assemblyman is so proposed, the Presiding Officer shall, after all such members have been proposed and seconded, put selection of the Chief Secretary or Deputy Chief Secretary as the case may be, to a vote by secret ballot.

(4) The Assemblyman elected to the office of Chief Secretary, as the case may be, the candidate receiving the highest number of votes, but where because of an equality of votes the election of a member is impossible, the ballot shall be retaken in respect of the relevant Office. (5) Where on the second ballot the equality of votes continues, the Presiding Officer shall exercise a casting vote.”