45 & 46 Vict. C. 50, s. 62.

Time and mode of election of auditors and assessors.

Right of women

to vote.

Polling districts.

Notices as to elections.

Time for filling casual vacancies.

Illness, &c., of

mayor or returning officer.

Election of councillor in more than one ward.

Elections not in churches.

Omission to hold election, or election void.

Election of Auditors and Assessors.

Sect. 62.—(1.) The ordinary day of election of elective auditors shall be the first of March, or such other day as the council, with the approval of the Local Government Board, from time to time appoint.

(2.) The ordinary day of election of revising assessors shall be the first of March. (3.) If the election of elective auditors and that of revising assessors are held at the same time, then at the poll one voting paper only shall be used by any person voting. The names of the candidates for the respective offices shall be therein separate, and distinguished so as to show the office for which each is a candidate, and the provisions of the Ballot Act, 1872, shall be varied accordingly; but in the counting of the votes every voting paper shall be deemed to be a separate voting paper in respect of each office, and any objections thereto shall be considered and dealt with accordingly.

(4.) An elector shall not vote for more than one person to be elective auditor or revising assessor.

(5.) Elections of elective auditors and of revising assessors shall be held at the town hall or some one other convenient place appointed by the mayor.

(6.) Save as in this section provided, all the provisions of this Act with respect to the nomination and election of councillors for a borough not having wards shall apply to the nomination and election of elective auditors and revising assessors.

- Supplemental and Exceptional Provisions.

Sect. 63. For all purposes connected with and having reference to the right to vote at municipal elections words in this Act importing the masculine gender include women.

Sect. 64. The council may divide the borough or any ward into polling districts, and thereupon the overseers shall, as far as practicable, make out the parish burgess lists so as to divide the names in conformity with the polling districts.

Sect. 65. Any notice required to be given in connexion with a municipal election may, as to elective auditors and revising assessors, be comprised in one notice, and may, as to ward elections, comprise matter necessary for several wards. Sect. 66. (1.) On a casual vacancy in a corporate office, the election shall be held within fourteen days after notice in writing of the vacancy has been given to the mayor or town clerk by two burgesses.

(2.) Where the office vacant is that of mayor, the notice of the meeting for the election shall be signed by the town clerk.

(3.) In other cases the day of election shall be fixed by the mayor.

Sect. 67.-(1.) If the mayor is dead, or is absent or otherwise incapable of acting in the execution of his powers and duties as to elections under this Act, the council shall forthwith choose an alderman to execute those powers and duties in the place of the mayor.

(2.) In case of the illness, absence, or incapacity to act of the alderman assigned to be returning officer at a ward election, the mayor may appoint to act in his stead another alderman, or, if the number of aldermen does not exceed the number of wards, a councillor not being a councillor for that ward, and not being enrolled in the ward roll for that ward.

Sect. 68, If a person is elected councillor in more than one ward, he shall, within three days after notice thereof, choose, by writing signed by him and delivered to the town clerk, or in his default the mayor shall, within three days after the time for choice has expired, declare, for which of those wards he shall serve, and the choice or declaration shall be conclusive.

Sect. 69. A municipal election shall not be held in any church, chapel, or other place of public worship.

Sect. 70.-(1.) If a municipal election is not held on the appointed day or within the appointed time, it may be held on the day next after that day or the expiration of that time.

c. 50, s. 70.

(2.) If a municipal election is not held on the appointed day or within the 45 & 46 Vict. appointed time, or on the day next after that day or the expiration of that time, or becomes void, the municipal corporation shall not thereby be dissolved or be disabled from electing, but the High Court may, on motion, grant a mandamus for the election to be held on a day appointed by the court.

(3.) Thereupon public notice of the election shall, by such person as the court directs, be fixed on the town hall, and shall be kept so fixed for at least six days before the day appointed for the election; and in all other respects the election shall be conducted as directed by this Act respecting ordinary elections.

Sect. 71.-(1.) If a parish burgess list is not made or revised in due time, the corresponding part of the burgess roll in operation before the time appointed for the revision shall be the parish burgess list until a burgess list for the parish has been revised and become part of the burgess roll.

(2.) If a burgess roll is not made in due time, the burgess roll in force before the time appointed for the revision shall continue in torce until the new burgess roll is made. Sect. 72. An election shall not be invalidated by non-compliance with the rules in the Third Schedule, or mistake in the use of the forms in the Eighth Schedule, if it appears to the court having cognisance of the question that the election was conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the body of this Act.

Sect. 73. Every municipal election not called in question within twelve months after the election, either by election petition or by information in the nature of a quo warranto, shall be deemed to have been to all intents a good and valid election.

Sect. 74. (1.) If any person forges or fraudulently defaces or fraudulently destroys any nomination paper, or delivers to the town clerk any forged nomination paper, knowing it to be forged, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months with or without hard labour.

(2.) An attempt to commit any such offence shall be punishable as the offence is punishable.

Burgess roll to

be in operation until revision of new burgess roll.

Non-compliance with rules.

Election valid

unless questioned within twelve

months.

Offences in relation to nomina

tion papers.

Offences in rela

Sect. 75.-(1.) If a mayor or revising asssessor neglects or refuses to revise a parish burgess list, or a mayor or alderman neglects or refuses to conduct or declare tion to lists and an election, as required by this Act, he shall for every such offence be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, recoverable by action.

(2.) If—

(a.) An overseer neglects or refuses to make, sign, or deliver a parish burgess list as required by this Act; or

(b.) A town clerk neglects or refuses to receive, print, and publish, a parish burgess list or list of claimants or respondents, as required by this Act; or (c.) An overseer or town clerk refuses to allow any such list to be inspected by a person having a right thereto;

he shall for every such neglect or refusal be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, recoverable by action.

(3.) An action under this section shall not lie after three months from the neglect or refusal. A moiety of any fine recovered therein shall, after payment of the costs of action, be paid to the plaintiff.

Sect. 76.-(1.) If the Ballot Act, 1872, ceases to be in force, so much of this Act as directs that the poll at a contested election of councillors shall be conducted as the poll at a contested parliamentary election is by the Ballot Act, 1872, directed to be conducted, and as applies provisions of the Ballot Act, 1872, to a poll at a contested election of councillors, shall forthwith cease to be in force, and thereupon the enactments in Part IV. of the Third Schedule shall revive and be in force.

(2.) But this cesser and revivor shall not affect any act done, right acquired, or liability or fine incurred, or the institution or prosecution to its termination of any proceeding in respect of any such right, liability, or fine.

elections.

Revival of former law on expiration

of Ballot Act.

PART IV.

CORRUPT PRACTICES AND ELECTION PETITIONS.

Sect. 77. In this Part

66

66

Corrupt Practices.

Bribery," treating," "undue influence," and "personation," include respectively anything done before, at, after, or with respect to a municipal election, which if done before, at, after, or with respect to a parliamentary election would make the person doing the same liable to any penalty, punishment or disqualification for bribery, treating, undue influence, or personation, as the case may be, under any Act for the time being in force with respect to parliamentary elections: ["Corrupt practice' means bribery, treating, undue influence, or personation :] Candidate means a person elected, or having been nominated, or having declared himself a candidate for election, to a corporate office :

66

[“Canvasser" means any person who solicits or persuades, or attempts to persuade, any person to vote or to abstain from voting at a municipal election, or to vote or to abstain from voting for a candidate at a municipal election :]

"Voter" means a burgess or a person who votes or claims to vote at a municipal election:

"Election court means a court constituted under this Part for the trial of an election petition :

Municipal election petition or “election petition” means a petition under this Part complaining of an undue municipal election: "Parliamentary election petition

Elections Act, 1868:

66

means a petition under the Parliamentary

"Prescribed means prescribed by general rules made under this Part: Borough" and election" when used with reference to a petition mean the borough and election to which the petition relates.

Sect. 81. A municipal election shall be wholly avoided by such general corruption, bribery, treating, or intimidation at the election as would by the common law of Parliament avoid a parliamentary election.

Sect. 85. The votes of persons in respect of whom any corrupt practice is proved to have been committed at a municipal election shall be struck off on a scrutiny.

Sect. 86. The enactments for the time being in force for the detection of personation and for the apprehension of persons charged with personation at a parliamentary election shall apply in the case of a municipal election.

Election Petitions.

Sect. 87.--(1.) A municipal election may be questioned by an election petition on the ground

(a.) That the election was as to the borough or ward wholly avoided by general bribery, treating, undue influence, or personation; or

(b.) That the election was avoided by corrupt practices or offences against this Part committed at the election; or

(c.) That the person whose election is questioned was at the time of the election disqualified; or

(d.) That he was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes.

(2.) A municipal election shall not be questioned on any of those grounds except by an election petition.

Sect. 88. (1.) An election petition may be presented either by four or more persons who voted or had a right to vote at the election or by a person alleging himself to have been a candidate at the election.

(2.) Any person whose election is questioned by the petition, and any returning officer of whose conduct a petition complains, may be made a respondent to the petition.

* Words_in_italics and secs. 78-80 and 82-84 are repealed by the Municipal Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act, 1884.

(3.) The petition shall be in the prescribed form and shall be signed by the 45 & 46 Vict petitioner, and shall be presented in the prescribed manner to the High Court in c. 50, s. 88. the Queen's Bench Division, and the prescribed officer shall send a copy thereof to the town clerk, who shall forthwith publish it in the borough.

(4.) It shall be presented within twenty-one days after the day on which the election was held, except that if it complains of the election on the ground of corrupt practices, and specifically alleges that a payment of money or other reward has been made or promised since the election by a person elected at the election, or on his account or with his privity, in pursuance or furtherance of such corrupt practices, it may be presented at any time within twenty-eight days after the date of the alleged payment or promise, whether or not any other petition against that person has been previously presented or tried.

Sect. 89.-(1.) At the time of presenting an election petition or within three days afterwards, the petitioner shall give security for all costs, charges, and expenses which may become payable by him to any witness summoned on his behalf, or to any respondent.

(2.) The security shall be to such amount, not exceeding five hundred pounds, as the High Court, or a Judge thereof, on summons, directs, and shall be given in the prescribed manner, either by a deposit of money, or by recognisance entered into by not more than four sureties, or partly in one way and partly in the other.

(3.) Within five days after the presentation of the petition the petitioner shall in the prescribed manner serve on the respondent a notice of the presentation of the petition, and of the nature of the proposed security and a copy of the petition.

(4.) Within five days after service of the notice the respondent may object in writing to any recognisance on the ground that any surety is insufficient or is dead, or cannot be found or ascertained for want of a sufficient description in the recognisance, or that a person named in the recognisance has not duly acknowledged the same.

(5.) An objection to a recognisance shall be decided in the prescribed manner. (6.) If the objection is allowed, the petitioner may, within a further prescribed time not exceeding five days, remove it by a deposit in the prescribed manner of such sum of money as will, in the opinion of the court or officer having cognisance of the matter, make the security sufficient.

(7.) If no security is given, as prescribed, or any objection is allowed and is not removed, as aforesaid, no further proceedings shall be had on the petition.

Sect. 90. On the expiration of the time limited for making objections, or, after objection made on the objection being disallowed or removed, whichever last happens, the petition shall be at issue.

Sect. 91. (1.) The prescribed officer shall as soon as may be make a list, in this Act referred to as the municipal election list, of all election petitions at issue, placing them in the order in which they were presented, and shall keep at his office a copy of this list, open to inspection in the prescribed manner.

(2.) The petitions shall, as far as conveniently may be, be tried in the order in which they stand in the list.

(3.) Two or more candidates may be made respondents to the same petition, and their cases may be tried at the same time, but for the purposes of this Part the petition shall be deemed to be a separate petition against each respondent.

(4.) Where more petitions than one are presented relating to the same election, or to elections held at the same time for different wards of the same borough, they shall be bracketed together in the list as one petition, but shall, unless the High Court otherwise directs, stand in the list in the place where the last of them would have stood if it had been the only petition relating to that election.

Security for

costs.

Petition at issue.

Municipal election list

Sect. 92. (1.) An election petition shall be tried by an election court con- Constitution of sisting of a barrister qualified and appointed as in this section provided, without a election court. jury.

(2.) A barrister shall not be qualified to constitute an election court if he is of less than fifteen years' standing, or is a member of the Commons House of

45 & 46 Vict.

C. 50, S. 92.

Trial of election

petition.

Parliament, or holds any office or place of profit under the Crown, other than that of recorder.

(3.) A barrister shall not be qualified to constitute an election court for trial of an election petition relating to any borough for which he is recorder, or in which he resides, or which is included in a circuit of Her Majesty's judges on which he practises as a barrister.

(4.) As soon as may be after a municipal election list is made out the prescribed officer shall send a copy thereof to each of the judges for the time being on the rota for the trial of parliamentary election petitions; [and those judges or two of them shall forthwith determine the number of barristers, not exceeding five at any one time, necessary to be appointed for the trial of the election petitions at issue, and shall appoint that number accordingly as commissioners under this Part, and shall assign the petitions to be tried by each.]*

(5.) If a commissioner to whom the trial of a petition is assigned, dies, or declines or becomes incapable to act, the said judges or two of them may assign the trial to be conducted or continued by any other of the commissioners appointed under this section.

(6.) The election court shall for the purposes of the trial have the same powers and privileges as a judge on the trial of a parliamentary election petition, except that any fine or order of committal by the court may on motion by the person aggrieved be discharged or varied by the High Court, or in vacation by a judge thereof, on such terms, if any, as the High Court or judge thinks fit.

Sect. 93.-(1.) An election petition shall be tried in open court, and notice of the time and place of trial shall be given in the prescribed manner not less than seven days before the day of trial.

(2.) The place of trial shall be within the borough, except that the High Court may, on being satisfied that special circumstances exist rendering it desirable that the petition should be tried elsewhere, appoint some other convenient place for the trial. (3.) The election court may in its discretion adjourn the trial from time to time, and from any one place to any other place within the borough or place where it is held. (4.) At the conclusion of the trial the election court shall determine whether the person whose election is complained of, or any and what other person, was duly elected, or whether the election was void, and shall forthwith certify in writing the determination to the High Court, and the determination so certified shall be final to all intents as to the matters at issue on the petition.

(5.) Where a charge is made in a petition of any corrupt practice or offence against this Part having been committed at the election the court shall, in addition to the certificate, and at the same time, report in writing to the High Court as follows:

(a.) Whether any corrupt practice or offence against this Part has or has not been proved to have been committed by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate at the election, and the nature of the corrupt practice or offence;

(b.) The names of all persons (if any) proved at the trial to have been guilty of any corrupt practice or offence against this Part;

(c.) Whether any corrupt practices have, or whether there is reason to believe that any corrupt practices have, extensively prevailed at the election in the borough or in any ward thereof.

(6.) The election court may at the same time make a special report to the High Court as to any matters arising in the course of the trial, an account of which ought in the judgment of the election court, to be submitted to the High Court.

(7.) If, on the application of any party to a petition made in the prescribed manner to the High Court, it appears to the High Court that the case raised by the petition can be conveniently stated as a special case, the High Court may direct the same to be stated accordingly, and any such special case shall be heard before the High Court, and the decision of the High Court shall be final.

* Words in italics repealed by the Municipal Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act, 1884.