20. Replacment of section 26 of the principal enactment

Section 26 of the principal enactment is hereby repealed and the following section substituted therefor–

26. Whenever a general election of the members of a local authority is due to be held in any year, the returning officer of the district in which the electoral area of such local authority is situated, shall publish a notice of his intention to hold such election. The notice shall specify the name of the returning officer who is appointed to receive nomination papers of the recognized political parties and independent groups whose candidates are contesting in each ward of that electoral area, the period (hereinafter referred to as the

“nomination period”) and the office hours during which nomination papers shall be received by the respective returning officer in his office and the place where such nomination papers shall be so received. Such nomination period shall commence on the fourteenth day after the date of the publication of the notice and shall expire at twelve noon on the seventeenth day after the date of publication of the notice. The notice shall also specify the date, time and place at which the approved symbols shall be allotted and in respect of a local authority area.”.