The Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) (Variation of Specified Documents and Amendment) Regulations 1991

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Regulation 4 of these Regulations varies the list of documents in rule 37(1E) of the parliamentary elections rules in Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 1983 (as inserted by section 1(2) of the Elections (Northern Ireland) Act 1985) by making an addition to it. Under rule 37(1A), as inserted, a ballot paper must not be delivered to a voter at a polling station unless he has produced a document on that list to the presiding officer or a clerk.

Regulations 5 to 8 of these Regulations amend the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 1986. Regulations 5 and 6 amend the said Regulations of 1986 to take further account of regulation 53(3A) of those Regulations (as inserted by S.I. 1989/1304) under which certain persons are entitled to a free copy of part of the register of electors for a constituency (in addition to those who are entitled to a free copy of the whole of the register for a constituency).

The background to regulation 7, which makes provision to give full effect to the amendments made by section 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1990 “the 1990 Act” is as follows. Section 6 of the Representation of the People Act 1985 “the 1985 Act”, as it has effect in Northern Ireland, provides for the right to an absent vote at parliamentary elections for an indefinite period and subsection (2) of that section sets out the grounds on which a person is eligible for such a vote. Section 1(a) of the 1990 Act amends section 6(2) of the 1985 Act to make a person eligible for an absent vote for an indefinite period if he is no longer resident at his qualifying address or at any other address in the same area; in spite of the reference to “an indefinite period”, the entitlement expires with the register of electors in relation to which the application was made. Section 1(b) of the 1990 Act inserts an additional subsection into section 6 of the 1985 Act to define what is the same area for these purposes. The amendment made by regulation 7 requires an applicant to give the address, if any, at which he is currently resident and thereby enables the electoral registration officer to determine whether or not the new address is in the same area as the qualifying address.

Regulation 8 makes an amendment to the back of the form for an elector’s and a proxy’s official poll cards to take account of the amendment to rule 37(1E) of the parliamentary elections rules made by regulation 4. The backs of those cards list the documents of which one must be produced at a polling station for the voter to be given a ballot paper.