Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962

Offences relating to applications for postal and proxy votes at a local election N.I.

[F1 4A (1) A person (“P”) is guilty of a corrupt practice if P—

(a) engages in an act specified in sub-paragraph (2) at a local election, and

(b) intends, by doing so, to deprive another of an opportunity to vote or to make for P or another a gain of a vote to which P or the other is not otherwise entitled or a gain of money or property.

(2) These are the acts—

(a) applying for a postal or proxy vote as some other person (whether that other person is living or dead or is a fictitious person);

(b) otherwise making a false statement in, or in connection with, an application for a postal or proxy vote;

(c) inducing the registration officer or returning officer to send a postal ballot paper or any communication relating to a postal or proxy vote to an address which has not been agreed to by the person entitled to the vote;

(d) causing a communication relating to a postal or proxy vote or containing a postal ballot paper not to be delivered to the intended recipient.

(3) In sub-paragraph (1)(b), property includes any description of property.

(4) In sub-paragraph (2) a reference to a postal vote or a postal ballot paper includes a reference to a proxy postal vote or a proxy postal ballot paper (as the case may be).

(5) For the purposes of this paragraph—

“postal ballot paper” means a ballot paper issued to a postal voter;

“postal voter” means a person entitled to vote by post at an election as an absent voter or as a proxy; and

“proxy postal ballot paper” means a ballot paper issued to a proxy postal voter.]

F1 Sch. 9 para. 4A inserted (16.12.2010) by Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/2977), arts. 1(2), 4, Sch. 1 para. 30 (with art. 1(3))