Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 2002

Amendments to voting procedure

5.—(1) Rule 34 (voting procedure) of the local elections rules is amended as follows.

(2) In paragraph (3) for “the document” to the end there is substituted—

“(a) the document; or

(b) the apparent age of the voter as compared with his age according to the date supplied as the date of his birth pursuant to section 10(4A)(1), 10A(1A)(b) or 13A(2A)(b) of the Representation of the People Act 1983(2) (as applied by Schedule 1 to the Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989(3)),

• raises a reasonable doubt as to whether the voter is the elector or proxy he represents himself to be.”.

(3) In paragraph (4) for the words from “Where” to “decides,” there is substituted “Where in such a case it is a presiding officer who so decides,”.

(4) For paragraph (5) there is substituted—

“(5) Where in such a case it is a clerk who so decides, he shall refer the matter and produce the document to the presiding officer, who shall proceed as if it had been to him that the voter had presented himself and produced the document in the first place.”.

(5) In paragraph (6)(f)(4), for the words after “under” there is substituted “, or having effect as if made, under section 79 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995(5)”.

(6) In paragraph (6)(g)(6), after the words “issued by” there is inserted “the Department for Social Development,”.

(7) After paragraph (6)(g) there is inserted—

“(h) a Senior SmartPass issued under the Northern Ireland Concessionary Fares Scheme for use from 1st May 2002;”.

(8) After paragraph (6)(h) there is inserted—

“(i) a current electoral identity card issued under section 13C of the Representation of the People Act 1983(7)”.

(1)

S.I. 1991/1715.

(2)

1983 c. 2; sections 10, 10A and 13A were substituted by Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 2000 (c. 2) and amended by section 1 of the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 (c. 13).

(3)

1989 c. 3; Schedule 1 was amended by paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to the Representation of the People Act 2000.

(4)

Paragraph (6)(f) was inserted by paragraph 41(b) of Schedule 1 to S.I. 1987/168.

(5)

1995 c. 21.

(6)

Paragraph (6)(g) was inserted by Article 4(2) of S.I. 1991/1715.

(7)

Section 13C was inserted by section 4(2) of the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002.