PART 3The election campaign

Supplemental

Rights of creditors70.

The provisions of this Part prohibiting—

(a)

payments and contracts for payments,

(b)

the payment or incurring of election expenses in excess of the maximum amount allowed by this Order, or

(c)

the incurring of expenses not authorised by the election agent,

do not affect the right of any creditor, who, when the contract was made or the expense was incurred, was ignorant of that contract or expense being in contravention of this Order.

Savings as to PCC elections71.

(1)

Where a person has been declared by others to be a candidate at a PCC election without the person's consent, nothing in this Part is to be construed as imposing any liability on that person, unless the person has afterwards assented to the declaration or has been nominated.

(2)

Nothing in this Part makes it illegal for an employer to permit electors or proxies for an elector to absent themselves from the employer's employment for a reasonable time for the purpose of voting at the poll at a PCC election without having any deduction from their salaries or wages on account of their absence, if the permission—

(a)

is (so far as practicable without injury to the employer's business) given equally to all persons alike who are at the time in the employment, and

(b)

is not given with a view to inducing any person to record the person's vote for any particular candidate at the election, and

(c)

is not refused to any person for the purpose of preventing the recording of the person's vote for any particular candidate at the election,

but this paragraph is not to be construed as making illegal any act which would not be illegal apart from this paragraph.

Interpretation of Part 372.

In this Part—

“declaration as to election expenses” means a declaration made under article 41;

“disputed claim” has the meaning given by article 38(1) as extended by article 39.

“election expenses”, in relation to a PCC election, is to be construed in accordance with articles 50 and 51;

“money” and “pecuniary reward” is deemed (except in articles 30, 67 and 68 and Schedule 5) to include—

(a)

any office, place or employment, and

(b)

any valuable security or other equivalent of money, and

(c)

any valuable consideration,

and expressions referring to money are to be construed accordingly;

“payment” includes any pecuniary or other reward;

“personal expenses” as used with respect to the expenditure of any candidate in a PCC election includes the reasonable travelling expenses of the candidate, and the reasonable expenses of the candidate in living at hotels or elsewhere for the purposes of and in relation to the election;

“return as to election expenses” means a return (including the bills and receipts to be delivered with it) to be made under article 40(1);

“sub-agent” has the meaning given in article 27.

Computation of time for purposes of Part 373.

(1)

For the purposes of this Part, where the day or last day allowed for the doing of anything falls on a day which is—

(a)

a Saturday or Sunday,

(b)

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday, or

(c)

a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning,

that time is to be extended until the next following day which is not one of those days.

(2)

In computing any period of not more than 7 days any day referred to in paragraph (1)(a) to (c) is to be disregarded.