(1) Subject to subsection (3) and section 48, except with the consent of the returning officer, no person other than the returning officer for the constituency concerned, counting officers, candidates in respect of the constituency concerned, their respective election agents and counting agents, members of the Commission, Chief Electoral Officer, police officers on duty at the counting station or any person authorized in writing by a member of the Commission may be present at the conduct of a count.
(2) The returning officer shall ensure that the arrangements made for the count in respect of a constituency are such that the candidates or any agent of theirs referred to in subsection (1) are afforded an opportunity to observe how individual votes are counted.
(3) The returning officer may, if he considers it fit, and having regard to whether it is practicable to do so without disrupting the count and prejudicing the secrecy of the individual votes, permit members of the public to observe the conduct of the count, from an area at the counting station allocated by him for the purpose at such distance from where the counting is taking place as he considers appropriate.