If all three principal officers are absent from a Communication, can a Past Master or some other designated member open the Lodge?

Only the Master, Senior Warden, or Junior Warden can open and preside over the Lodge, with two extraordinary exceptions: First, the Grand Master can open and preside over the Communication of any Lodge in the jurisdiction, regardless of whether a principal officer is present or not, or he may appoint a delegate to do the same on his behalf; and second, if the Lodge no longer has any of the three principal officers due to death, suspension/expulsion or demit, the Grand Master can issue a dispensation to the District Deputy Grand Master to open the Lodge for the purpose of electing new principal officers. Both these exceptions are vanishingly rare. Past Masters have no special rights or abilities under our system of Masonry, including the ability to open and preside over a Lodge in the absence of the principal officers.