COMING ELECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 88, 11 October 1919, Page 9

COMING ELECTIONS

PROVISIONS FOR SOLDIERS' VOTES The Expeditionary Forces Voting Bill, introduced in tho House of Representatives, is designed to insure that all members of the Expeditionary Forces who may bo in New Zealand at the date of th 6 next general election shall be entitled to vote at that election and at tho licensing poll to be held 1 simultaneously therewith, notwithstanding that they may not have been registered as electors under the Legislature ' Act, 1908. The Bill applies only to members of an Expeditionary Force who have been beyond the seas, and " who have not been discharged before the 31st August, 1919. It is assumed that all members discharged prior to the 31st August, 1919, will be duly enrolled as electors.

With respect to members who are enrolled as electors it is provided—(l) That they may vote in the district for which they are registered in all respects as ordinary electors; or (2) that they may vote outside that district on production of evidence of their qualifications. Memberi who are enrolled as electors may vote as electors of—(1) The electoral district in which they were resident immediately before becoming members of the Expeditionary Force; or (2) any electoral district in which they may have resided for not less' than one month : since their return to New Zealand. Any person qualified to vote under the Bill may vote in any part of New Zealand without requiring to produce an absent voter's permit. Every person who is not registered as an elector is required to produce to the Deputy Returning Officer sufficient documentary evidence of the fact that he is,a recently returned member of an Expeditionary Force within the meaning of the Bill. The Returning Officer is directed to take steps after the ■ completion of the election to secure the enrolment of all persons who have voted under the Bill, and who are not registered as electors. One clause of the Bill confers on members of the Expeditionary Forces who have Tiot attained the age of twenty-one years the right to vote and also to be registered as electors. It also saves with respect to members of the Expeditionary Forces the provisions of section 38 of the principal Act (relating to the disfranchisement of public defaulters and others). No irregularities that may occur at the election with respect to the votes of members of the Expeditionary Forces shall invalidate the election. The provisions of the Bill are to be applied to any by-election that may be held after the next general election, and before the expiration of six months' after the passing of,the Act.