From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishreturning officerreˈturning ˌofficer noun [countable] PPVthe official in each town or area of Britain who arranges an election to Parliament and announces the result
Examples from the Corpus
returning officer• As the Lord Mayor Albert was also returning officer on the night and so was the first to see the result.• As many as 20 people died in polling-related incidents, and the returning officer was forced to suspend voting in eight stations.• But then at 11.10, there was the result being read out, live, by the Torbay returning officer. 