PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Evening Star, Issue 23728, 8 November 1940, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

ALL SOLDIERS OVERSEAS HAVE ' VOTE REGULATIONS GAZETTED [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, November 7. Voting in parliamentary elections by members of the forces overseas is provided for in the Electoral (Members ot Forces)) Regulations, 1940, which wore published with to-night’s ‘ Gazette.’ These regulations were foreshadowed in an Act passed last session, and cover the procedure to bo adopted m the case ot parliamentary elections for the taking of the votes of soldiers serving abroad. Special returning officers will be appointed to supervise the recording ot votes, and they will make the necessary arrangements for polling places, the distribution of voting papers, the counting of votes, etc. After the poll has been held, the returning officers will forward the results to the chief electoral officer in New Zealand by cable or other expeditious means. Such machinery matters as the forwarding of the necessary ballot papers to New Zealanders serving overseas are covered. An interesting provision is tbo definition contained in the regulations of those who are eligible to vote. They will comprise all members of the forces irrespective of ago. Members of the forces will vote for candidates standing for election in their own New Zealand electorates, and they will be required to make a declaration that they were residing in those electorates immediately prior to their going overseas. Another provision empowers the chief electoral officer to embody the results of the soldiers’ voting in the general result of the district polls when they are announced.