AFTERMATH OF ELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 9

AFTERMATH OF ELECTION

INJUNCTION APPLIED FOR CASE WITHOUT PRECEDENT OFFICER & ABSENT VOTES By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Received Oct. 17, 5.5 p.m. Sydney, Oct. 17. The elections took a novel turn without precedent, when Mr. J. R. Nield, the Nationalist candidate for Hurstville, applied to the Equity Court for leave to apply for an ex-parte injunction to restrain the returning officer from declaring the result of the poll and frem forwarding to the Governor the name cf the Labour candidate, Mr. W. J. Butler, who polled 7039 votes against Mr. Nields’ 7002.

Tile grounds of the application are stated in an affidavit by the applicant to be that advices were received by the returning officer before the poll was declared that there were a number of absent votes polled in the electorate. Il is alleged that the day before the poll the returning officer in Hurstville had stated that there were 80 absent vote! missing and that unless one candidate got more absent votes than 80 there would be a row,

On the Saturday morning the returning officer refused to announce how many absent votes had been received, and on these grounds Mr. Nield applied for an injunction. The court granted leave to serve a short notice of motion upon the returning officer for an injunction, the application to be heard to-morrow.