3.3 Polling Officer, Presiding Officer and Returning Officers

The election machinery's hierarchy (the statutory design): The Returning Officer (RO): the constituency's chief election officer — appointed by the Commission (the gazetted officers' pool); the nomination's receipt-and-scrutiny (the objections' hearing; the candidates' acceptance-and-rejection — the roster's making); the symbols' allotment; the campaign's-and-conduct's local enforcement; the polling plan (the stations' layout, the staff's appointment); the counting's conduct (the counting centre's command; the recounts; the agents' admission); the result's declaration-and-certification (the winner's return to the Commission); the election petitions' record custodianship. The Presiding Officer: the polling station's chief — the station's whole conduct: the opening (the boxes'-and-materials' inspection; the agents' admission); the voters' identification-and- ballot issue; the voting's discipline (the booth's secrecy; the assisted voting; the challenged votes); the closing (the hour's enforcement; the queued-voter rule); the sealing- and-delivery (the boxes' custody to the counting — the integrity chain); the station's incidents' record (the diary — the later disputes' evidence). The Polling Officer: the presiding officer's assistants — the identity's verification, the roll's marking, the ballot's issue (the indelible-ink discipline), the voters' flow management; the polling-day's many hands. The appointment's design: the Commission's appointment (the civil-service-and-judicial officers' pools by the statute's design); the training's discipline (the manuals-and-briefings); the officers' impartiality's duties (the code's application to the officers themselves; the misconduct's offences — Unit 5.1's administration's offences).