ELECTORAL ABUSES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17454, 31 December 1930, Page 8

ELECTORAL ABUSES

ALLEGED IRREGULARITIES AMENDING BILL INTRODUCED BRISBANE, Dec. 11. Tn the Legislative Assembly to-day, jn moving for leave to introduce a bill to amend the Elections Act, the AttorneyGeneral said that one of the most important changes dealt with residential qualifications for voting. The bill provided for a longer period of residence in Queensland and in the electorate. Natives of British India and Syria who possessed the necessary residential qualifications, Would be allowed to become enrolled, having: hitherto been debarred. A further amendment would give the franchise to independent half-castes. ' Members of the Opposition protested that under the bill seasonal workers would bo debarred from enrolment. Mr. Kerr said the bill was designed to cleanse the roll. This had been urgently needed for years. For the last 10 to 15 years there had been hundreds of names on the rolls of various electorates of peoplo Who had been dead for years. There were fully SCO such cases in his own electorate —Enoggera. Under the Labor Government the requirements Of the Electoral Act had been flagrantly ignored. Hundreds of Labor voters bad been moved about from one electorate to another just before election time in order to Win a seat by unfair means. The Minister of Railways said there Were at least 600 names on the Manila roll of persons whose whereabouts could not be traced, j The motion was carried and the bill passed the first reading.