WELLINGTON ELECTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22126, 4 June 1935, Page 11

WELLINGTON ELECTIONS

CITY COUNCIL RESULT INQUIRY TO BE HELD IRREGULARITIES ALLEGED The formal application lodged by the Wellington Labour Representation Committee on Saturday for a magisterial inquiry into the election of members of the Wellington City Council on May 8 is based on two grounds. One of these is an allegation that many votes cast on behalf of companies and other corporate bodies were invalid and the other is that there was a certain' amount of plural voting. The inquiry is to be held on Tuesday, June 11. The complaint made immediately after the election that the returning officer failed to provide at several polling places sufficient voting papers, with the result that many electors were unable to record their votes, has not been made in the petition. It is provided in section 13 of the Local Elections and Polls Act, 192 G. that any corporate body, the name of which appears on the roll, may by resolution appoint some person to vote on its behalf, the production of a sealed copy of this resolution enabling the person named to vote. It js claimed that the returning officer committed a breach of this section in that he allowed as valid a number of such votes, although the authorities produced were not in the prescribed form. It has been alleged that some of these authorities did not bear the seal of the company executing them. A further section of the Act ordains that the returning officer shall retain the authorities produced and it is alleged by the Wellington Labour Representation Committee that in certain cases the provisions of this section were not observed.

On the question of dual voting section 30 of the Act provides that the returning officer shall select from the packets of voting papers the votes of any person who appears to have received a voting paper at two or more polling places and shall disallow every vote appearing to have been given by means of the voting papers so selected. It is alleged that the provisions of this section were not observed, in that the returning .officer did not take any steps to satisfy himself that the votes so disallowed were in fact invalid.

The petition presented to the Court at Wellington asks that the roll be scrutinised for the purpose of discovering how many corporate bodies voted in the election; that all votes cast on behalf of corporate bodies without the authority prescribed by section 13 be disallowed; and that a scrutiny be held in respect of all votes disallowed by the returning officer purporting to act in virtue of the provisions of section 30 of the Act.

In such cases if an election is declared void a fresh election is to be held not later than 25 days after the declaration. The decision made would be final.