Section 21.
1(1)Where an election is initiated on or after the appointed day, the registration officer shall, on the day of the initiation thereof or the next following day, publish a notice specifying the number of persons estimated by him to be qualified for registration as electors in each polling district in the constituency, and for the purposes of the First Schedule to the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883 (which relates to the expenses of candidates) as amended by subsection (1) of section thirty-three of, and the Fourth Schedule to, the principal Act, as respects that election the "number so specified in relation to any polling district shall be taken to be the number of electors- in that polling district, and the aggregate of those numbers shall be taken to be the number of electors in the constituency, and accordingly paragraphs of Part V of the said First Schedule shall not apply.
(2)The registration officer shall publish the said notice by posting up copies thereof in a conspicuous place in his office and in such other places in the constituency as he thinks best adapted for informing the persons concerned.
(3)Electoral registration regulations may provide, as respects any constituency where by reason of the large number of persons qualified to be entered in the business premises register it appears to the Secretary of State impossible for the registration officer on the initiation of an election to estimate the numbers aforesaid accurately enough for the purposes of this paragraph, that the said notice shall be published within the prescribed time, not being later than the day after the last day for making applications to be included in the said register.
2Subject to the foregoing paragraph, where a register has been published under Part I of this Act for an election, any reference in any enactment to parliamentary electors, parliamentary voters or persons entitled to vote at parliamentary elections, by whatever name called, shall be construed in relation to any matter occurring after that publication at or in connection with the election, as a reference to persons registered in the register ; and any reference in any enactment to the parliamentary register of electors, the parliamentary register, the register of parliamentary electors or the register of persons entitled to vote at a parliamentary election, by whatever name called, shall be construed accordingly.
3(1)Subject to the two foregoing paragraphs, any reference in any enactment to parliamentary electors, parliamentary voters Or persons entitled to vote at parliamentary elections, by whatever name called, shall—
(a)in relation to any matter occurring after the appointed day and before the date as from which regulations made under subsection (2) of section twelve of this Act are revoked in pursuance of subsection (3) of-that section, be construed as respects any constituency—
(i)in the case of a reference in any of the enactments specified in sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph, as a reference to persons claiming or reputed to be qualified to be registered in the register for an election in the constituency (whether or not such an election has been initiated);
(ii)for the purpose of determining any person's qualifications to hold any office, or to do any act (other than an act to be done at or in connection with a parliamentary election), as a reference to persons who were registered in the register of parliamentary electors last prepared for the constituency (whether under the principal Act or this Act) ; and
(b)in relation to any matter occurring after the date as from which the said, regulations are revoked, be construed as respects any constituency as a reference to persons whose names for the time being, appear in an electors list for which provision is required to be made by the said subsection (3) of section twelve of this Act.
(2)The enactments above referred to in this paragraph are :—
(a)section eighteen of the [10 Geo. 4. c. 44.] Metropolitan Police Act, 1829 (both as originally enacted and as extended by section nine of the [19 & 20 Vict. c. 2.] Metropolitan Police Act, 1856), section nine of the [2 & 3 Vict. c. 93.] County Police Act, 1839, section nine of the [19 & 20 Vict. c. 69.] County and Borough Police Act, 1856, section seventeen of the [20 & 21 Vict. c. 72.] Police (Scotland) Act, 1857, and section five of the [23 & 24 Vict. c. 135.] Metropolitan Police Act, 1860 (which prohibit constables and others from canvassing at certain parliamentary elections) ;
(b)section six of the [15 & 16 Vict. c. 57.] Election Commissioners Act, 1852, sections two, three and seven of the [17 & 18 Vict. c. 102.] Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854, section, forty-nine of the [30 & 31 Vict. c. 102.] Representation of the People Act, 1867, subsection (2) of section one, and paragraph (b) of subsection (1) and subsection (3) of section seven, of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883 (which deal with bribery and corruption at parliamentary elections);
(c)rule 7 of the First Schedule to the Ballot Act, 1872, section thirteen of the [41 & 42 Vict. c. 26.] Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, and subsection (2) of section thirty-one of the principal Act (which relate respectively to the right of electors to obtain nomination forms, to inspect the rate book and to make representations as to the polling districts and polling places in a constituency) ;
(d)subsection (2) of section thirty-three of the principal Act (which relates to the right of a candidate to send an election address post free to each elector).
4On the publication of a register for any constituency under subsection (1) of section nineteen of this Act, the foregoing provisions of this Schedule shall cease to have effect in relation to that constituency, except as respects any parliamentary election initiated before the expiration of the National Registration Act, 1939, and sections thirty-one and thirty-three of, and paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Sixth Schedule to, the principal Act shall have effect as if the said register were a register prepared under the principal Act.
5Section thirty-nine of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883, (which provides for the annual preparation of a corrupt and illegal practices list and for the printing and publication of that list with the register of electors) shall have effect subject to the following modifications:—
(a)the list, instead of being made out annually, shall be made out in any constituency as soon as may be after the initiation of a war election in the constituency and shall be made out in every constituency as soon as may be after the expiration of the National Registration Act, 1939 ;
(b)the list need not be printed ;
(c)the list shall be published in the first instance in accordance with electoral registration regulations apart from and before the register prepared under Part I of this Act, and those regulations shall prescribe the time within which claims and objections are to be made thereto ;
(d)the list shall be finally published with the said register.
6Section eleven of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878 (which requires registrars of births and deaths to make returns of deaths to registration officers) shall not have effect.
7Nothing in subsection (2) of section eight of the National Registration Act, 1939 (which penalises the disclosure of information obtained under that Act) shall apply to the furnishing of information for the purposes of Part I of this Act in accordance with national registration regulations.
8The foregoing provisions of this Schedule may be varied or supplemented by electoral registration regulations.