A point of clarification: correct election of Chair by casting vote of outgoing Chair/Mayor.

Question

I realise this has been debated previously on this forum but I ask a similar question again. The 2018/19 Chair/Mayor (did not stand in May 2019)  but presided over the first business of the new Council (to elect a Chair/Mayor). The vote was 7/7. The outgoing Mayor then cast his vote in favour of one the candidates. Is this procedure still valid? Clearly, we have some unhappy Councillors.

Answer 1

There are two points to get right in this situation. First, the retiring chair does not have a vote in the initial voting. So, if the retiring chair did vote, that was invalid, and there should not have been a tied vote.

But if the retiring chair correctly refrained from voting, and there was a tied vote within the new council, then it is quite correct that the retiring chair, who is presiding over the election, must give a casting vote to decide the issue.  In this case, I guess whatever way the vote was cast, there would be seven unhappy people!