European Parliament Elections Act, 1997

Method of election.

7.—(1) Elections of representatives to the Parliament shall be held and each such election (in this Act referred to as “a European election”) shall be conducted in accordance with this Act, and in case a European election is contested, the poll shall be taken according to the principle of proportional representation, each elector having one transferable vote.

(2) Voting at a European election shall be by secret ballot.

(3) In this section “transferable vote” means a vote which is—

(a) capable of being given so as to indicate the voter's preference for the candidates in order, and

(b) capable of being transferred to the next choice when the vote is not required to give a prior choice the necessary quota of votes, or when, owing to the deficiency in the number of the votes given for a prior choice, that choice is excluded from the list of candidates.