Page images
PDF
EPUB

c. 51.

person, either before, during, or after an election, 46 & 47 Vict.
directly or indirectly gives or provides, or pays wholly
or in part the expense of giving or providing, any
meat, drink, entertainment, or provision to or for any
person, for the purpose of corruptly influencing that
person or any other person to give or refrain from
giving his vote at the election, or on account of such
person or any other person having voted or refrained
from voting, or being about to vote or refrain from
voting at such election, shall be guilty of treating.

(2.) And every elector who corruptly accepts or takes any Passive.
such meat, drink, or entertainment, or provision shall

also be guilty of treating.

Section 4 of the Corrupt Practice Act, 1854, is repealed by this Act. The alteration in the law by this section is that "any person," and not merely a candidate by himself or his agent, as formerly, may be guilty of active treating, and any elector may be guilty of passive treating. Treating is a "corrupt practice" (s. 3), and punishable under ss. 4, 5, and 6. Under 8. 5

treating by an agent avoids the election, and by a candidate under s. 4.

2. Every person who shall directly or indirectly, by himself What is undue or by any other person on his behalf, make use of or threaten influence. to make use of any force, violence, or restraint, or inflict, or threaten to inflict, by himself or by any other person, any temporal or spiritual injury, damage, harm, or loss upon or against any person in order to induce or compel such person to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting at any election, or who shall by abduction, duress, or any fraudulent device or contrivance impede or prevent the free exercise of the franchise of any elector, or shall thereby compel, induce, or prevail upon any elector either to give or to refrain from giving his vote at any election, shall be guilty of undue influence.

This is a reproduction of the definition of the repealed s. 5 of the Act of 1854, with the addition of the words "temporal or spiritual" inserted, to enforce the decision of Mr. Justice Keogh in Galway County, 2 O'Malley and Hardcastle, 54.

Undue influence is by s. 3 a corrupt practice, and is punishable under ss. 4, 5, and 6. Undue influence by a candidate by s. 4, and by an agent by s. 5, avoids the election.

per

*

p. 512.

3. The expression "corrupt practice" as used in this Act What is means any of the following offences; namely, treating and corrupt undue influence, as defined by this Act, and bribery, and practice sonation, as defined by the enactments set forth in Part III.* of the third schedule to this Act, and aiding, abetting, counselling, and procuring the commission of the offence of personation, and every offence which is a corrupt practice within the meaning of this Act shall be a corrupt practice within the meaning of the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868.†

The enactments in the schedule supply the definition of bribery proper under the Act of 1852, corrupt payment of rates under the Representation of the People Act, 1867, and of personation under the Ballot Act. A false declaration of expenses is (p. 482) decmed a corrupt practice.

† p. 522.

[blocks in formation]

4. Where upon the trial of an election petition respecting an election for a county or borough the election court, by the report made to the Speaker in pursuance of section eleven of the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868,* reports that any corrupt practice other than treating or undue influence has been proved to have been committed in reference to such election by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate at such election, or that the offence of treating or undue influence has been proved to have been committed in reference to such election by any candidate at such election, that candidate shall not be capable of ever being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons for the said county or borough, and if he has been elected, his election shall be void; and he shall further be subject to the same incapacities as if at the date of the said report he had been convicted on an indictment of a corrupt practice.

The report referred to is not the certificate of the result of the election petition which is given under subs. 13 of s. 11 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868, but the report given under subs. 12. As this section requires the report as a condition precedent to avoiding the election, the certificate of the result may declare the election valid, but the effect of the report may be to avoid it, as for example, in cases of treating by a candidate not the ground of avoiding an election previously to this Act, but so made by this Act, also in case of an illegal practice male for the first time a ground of avoiding an election. Probably the difficulty would be surmounted by the judge making the formal" certificate of result" subject to his "report," and making after the report a declaration that by reason of the "report" the election is void, or he may leave the report to have its legal effect unassisted.

5. Upon the trial of an election petition respecting an election for a county or borough, in which a charge is made of any corrupt practice having been committed in reference to such election, the election court shall report in writing to the Speaker whether any of the candidates at such election has been guilty by his agents of any corrupt practice in reference to such election; and if the report is that any candidate at such election has been guilty by his agents of any corrupt practice in reference to such election, that candidate shall not be capable of being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons for such county or borough for seven years after the date of the report, and if he has been elected his election shall be void.

Agents.] The question of agency has been dealt with in numerous cases (see Rogers on Elections, ch. xiv.), of which the result would seem to be that agency at elections is to be more readily implied than agency under other relations. See per Blackburn, J., in the Taunton Case (No. 1), (1 O'Malley and Hardcastle 182), and per Grove, J., in the Taunton Case (No. 2), (2 O'Malley and Hardcastle, 73). Agency would not be conclusively implied from the acts of messengers and others, whose employment is expressly authorized by s. 17 (see the Windsor Case, 1 O'M. & H. 3); though agency would be more readily implied from the acts of such persons than from the acts of unpaid canvassers and other supporters, who are ordinarily not agents, unless they be committee men (see the Wakefield Case, 2 O'M. & H. 102) recognised as such by the candidate (the Westminster Case, 1 O'M. & H. 91), or otherwise recognised as working for him (the Staleybridge Case, 1 O'M, & H. 69). From these and other cases it appears obvious that the question is

always one of fact and degree to be decided by the Election Judge, without 46 & 47 Vict. any obligation to state a case for the High Court; nor has any such been yet stated.

c. 51.

6. (1.) A person who commits any corrupt practice other Punishment than personation, or aiding, abetting, counselling, or procuring of person the commission of the offence of personation, shall be guilty of convicted on a misdemeanor, and on conviction on indictment shall be liable of corrupt to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for a term not practices. exceeding one year, or to be fined any sum not exceeding two

hundred pounds.

indictment

(2.) A person who commits the offence of personation, or of Convicted of aiding, abetting, counselling, or procuring the commission of personation. that offence, shall be guilty of felony, and any person convicted thereof on indictment shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, together with hard labour.

(3.) A person who is convicted on indictment of any corrupt Disqualificapractice shall (in addition to any punishment as above provided) tions: be not capable during a period of seven years from the date of

his conviction:

(a.) of being registered as an elector or voting at any election as elector; in the United Kingdom, whether it be a parliamentary election or an election for any public office within the meaning of this Act; or

(b.) of holding any public or judicial office within the mean

as public

ing of this Act, and if he holds any such office the officer;
office shall be vacated.

(4.) Any person so convicted of a corrupt practice in reference as member. to any election shall also be incapable of being elected to and of sitting in the House of Commons during the seven years next after the date of his conviction, and if at that date he has been elected to the House of Commons his election shall be vacated from the time of such conviction.

Illegal Practices.

7. (1.) No payment or contract for payment shall, for the Illegal purpose of promoting or procuring the election of a candidate at payments. any election, be made

(a.) on account of the conveyance of electors to or from the For conpoll, whether for the hiring of horses or carriages, or veyances. for railway fares, or otherwise; or

(b.) to an elector on account of the use of any house, land, For use of building, or premises for the exhibition of any address, premises. bill, or notice, or on account of the exhibition of any address, bill, or notice; or

(c.) on account of any committee room in excess of the For excessive number allowed by the First Schedule to this Act.

pursu

(2.) Subject to such exception as may be allowed in ance of this Act, if any payment or contract for payment is knowingly made in contravention of this section either before, during, or after an election, the person making such payment

committee

rooms.

Payer and receiver guilty.

46 & 47 Vict.

c. 51, s. 7.

Illegal
Payments.

Saving for
advertising
agents.

Expense in

excess of

maximum

to be illegal practice.

Voting by prohibited persons and

inducing them

to vote.

Publishing false statement of withdrawal of candidate.

or contract shall be guilty of an illegal practice, and any person receiving such payment or being a party to any such contract, knowing the same to be in contravention of this Act, shall also be guilty of an illegal practice.

(3.) Provided that where it is the ordinary business of an elector as an advertising agent to exhibit for payment bills and advertisements, a payment to or contract with such elector, if made in the ordinary course of business, shall not be deemed to be an illegal practice within the meaning of this section.

The penalties for illegal practices are on conviction provided by s. 10, on report of election judge by s. 11, and include avoiding the election. As to the exception referred to in subs. 2, see s. 23. As to conveying voters by sea, see s. 48. Lending private carriages gratuitously is not forbidden, but lending hackney carriages gratuitously is illegal by s. 14 (p. 473).

8. (1.) Subject to such exception as may be allowed in pursuance of this Act, no sum shall be paid and no expense shall be incurred by a candidate at an election or his election agent, whether before, during, or after an election, on account of or in respect of the conduct or management of such election, in excess of any maximum amount in that behalf specified in the first schedule to this Act.

(2.) Any candidate or election agent who knowingly acts in contravention of this section shall be guilty of an illegal prac

tice.

As to allowance of exceptions, see s. 23 (p. 476). An expense made illegal by this Act could not be sued for, nor recovered if paid, with knowledge of the facts (see s. 19).

9. (1.) If any person votes or induces or procures any person to vote at any election, knowing that he or such person is prohibited, whether by this or any other Act from voting at such election, he shall be guilty of an illegal practice.

(2.) Any person who before or during an election knowingly publishes a false statement of the withdrawal of a candidate at such election for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of another candidate shall be guilty of an illegal prac

tice.

(3.) Provided that a candidate shall not be liable, nor shall his election be avoided, for any illegal practice under this section committed by his agent other than his election agent.

As to subs. 1, the person in question must both be prohibited as distinguished from merely disqualified, and the prohibition must be by statute. For a list of incapacities, see note to s. 3 of the Representation People Act, 1867, p. 36. Of the persons incapacitated therein mentioned as incapacitated by statute, the phraseology of the statute varies in almost every case. Whether the incapacity amounts to a prohibition depends on the construction of those words in each case. Infants are clearly prohibited by the terms of 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 25, p. 5, and where the incapacity is accompanied by a penalty, as in the case of Metropolitan Police under 10 Geo. 4, c. 44, s. 18, p. 12, and election agents, clerks, and others for reward under s. 11 of the Representation People Act, 1867, p. 40, there would also seem to be a prohibition. Persons in receipt of parochial relief are by s. 36 of the Act of 1832, p. 25, only "disentitled to be registered." Similarly aliens (33 Vict. c. 14, p. 51). The prohibitions from voting in this statute are to be found in ss. 36 and 37 p. 484).

46 & 47 Vict.

c. 51.

Punishment

on conviction

10. A person guilty of an illegal practice, whether under the foregoing sections or under the provisions hereinafter contained in this Act, shall on summary conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds and be incapable during a period of five years from the date of his conviction of being registered of illegal as an elector or voting at any election (whether it be a parlia- practice. mentary election or an election for a public office within the meaning of this Act) held for or within the county or borough in which the illegal practice has been committed.

As to mode of prosecution and appeal to Quarter Sessions, see s. 51,
For definition of public office, see s. 54, p. 502.

p. 497.
11. Whereas by sub-section fourteen of section eleven of the
Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868,* it is provided that where a
charge is made in an election petition of any corrupt practice
having been committed at the election to which the petition
refers, the judge shall report in writing to the Speaker as
follows:-
(a.) "Whether any corrupt practice has or has not been
proved to have been committed by or with the know-
ledge and consent of any candidate at such election,
and the nature of such corrupt practice;

(b.) "The names of all persons (if any) who have been proved at the trial to have been guilty of any corrupt practice;

(c.) "Whether corrupt practices have, or whether there is reason to believe corrupt practices have, extensively prevailed at the election to which the petition relates";

And whereas it is expedient to extend the said sub-section to illegal practices:

Be it therefore enacted as follows:

Election Court to report on illegal practice, as on corrupt practice.

*

p. 527.

Subsection fourteen of section eleven of the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868,† shall apply as if that subsection were † p. 527. herein re-enacted with the substitution of illegal practice within the meaning of this Act for corrupt practice; and upon the trial of an election petition respecting an election for a county or borough, the election court shall report in writing to the Speaker the particulars required by the said subsection as herein re-enacted, and shall also report whether any candidate at such election has been guilty by his agents of any illegal practice within the meaning of this Act in reference to such election, and the following consequences shall ensue upon the report by the election court to the Speaker; (that is to say,) (a.) If the report is that any illegal practice has been proved Punishment to have been committed in reference to such election of candidate by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate found guilty at such election, that candidate shall not be capable of being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons for the said county or borough for seven years next after the date of the report, and if he has been elected

with knowledge.

« PreviousContinue »