Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962

PART I N.I. CORRUPT PRACTICES

1 N.I. Bribery

(1) A person shall be guilty of bribery if he, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf—

(a) gives any money or procures any office to or for any voter or to or for any other person on behalf of any voter or to or for any other person in order to induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting; or

(b) corruptly does any such act as aforesaid on account of any voter having voted or refrained from voting; or

(c) makes any such gift or procurement as aforesaid to or for any person in order to induce that person to procure, or endeavour to procure, the election of any candidate at any election or the vote of any voter; or

(d) upon or in consequence of any such gift or procurement as aforesaid, procures or engages, promises or endeavours to procure the election of any candidate at any election or the vote of any voter.

For the purposes of this sub-paragraph—

(i)

references to giving money shall include references to giving, lending, agreeing to give or lend, offering, promising, or promising to procure or endeavour to procure any money or valuable consideration; and

(ii)

references to procuring any office shall include references to giving, procuring, agreeing to give or procure, offering, promising, or promising to procure or to endeavour to procure any office, place or employment.

(2) A person shall be guilty of bribery if he advances or pays or causes to be paid any money to or to the use of any other person with the intent that that money or any part thereof is to be expended in bribery at any election or knowingly pays or causes to be paid any money to any person in discharge or repayment of any money wholly or in part expended in bribery at any election.

(3) The foregoing provisions of this paragraph shall not extend or be construed as extending to any money paid or agreed to be paid for or on account of any lawful expenses incurred in good faith at or in relation to an election.

(4) A voter shall be guilty of bribery if before or during an election he directly or indirectly by himself or by any other person on his behalf receives, agrees, or contracts for any money, gift, loan or valuable consideration, office, place or employment for himself or for any other person for voting or agreeing to vote or for refraining or agreeing to refrain from voting.

(5) A person shall be guilty of bribery if after an election he directly or indirectly by himself or by any other person on his behalf receives any money or valuable consideration on account of any person having voted or refrained from voting or having induced any other person to vote or refrain from voting.

(6) In this paragraph the expression voter includes any person who has or claims to have a right to vote either on his own behalf or by proxy.

2 N.I. Treating

(1) A person shall be guilty of treating if he corruptly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, either before, during or after an election, directly or indirectly gives or provides, or pays wholly or in part the expense of giving or providing, any food, drink, entertainment or provision to or for any person—

(a) for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to vote or refrain from voting; or

(b) on account of that person or any other person having voted or refrained from voting, or being about to vote or refrain from voting.

(2) Every elector or proxy who corruptly accepts or takes any such food, drink, entertainment or provision shall also be guilty of treating.

[F1 3 N.I. Undue influence

(1) A person is guilty of undue influence if the person carries out an activity falling within sub-paragraph (3) for the purpose of—

(a) inducing or compelling an elector or proxy for an elector to vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting, or

(b) otherwise impeding or preventing the free exercise of the franchise of an elector or of a proxy for an elector.

(2) A person (“P”) is also guilty of undue influence if P carries out an activity falling within any of paragraphs (a) to (f) of sub-paragraph (3) on account of—

(a) an elector or proxy for an elector having voted in a particular way or refrained from voting, or

(b) P assuming an elector or proxy for an elector to have voted in a particular way or to have refrained from voting.

(3) The following activities fall within this sub-paragraph—

(a) using or threatening to use violence against a person;

(b) damaging or destroying, or threatening to damage or destroy, a person’s property;

(c) damaging or threatening to damage a person’s reputation;

(d) causing or threatening to cause financial loss to a person;

(e) causing spiritual injury to, or placing undue spiritual pressure on, a person;

(f) doing any other act designed to intimidate a person;

(g) doing any act designed to deceive a person in relation to the administration of an election.

(4) For the purposes of sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) an activity is carried out by a person (“P”) if it is carried out—

(a) by P,

(b) by P jointly with one or more other persons, or

(c) by one or more other persons on behalf of P and with P’s authority or consent.]

F1 Sch. 9 para. 3 substituted (1.11.2023) by Elections Act 2022 (c. 37), s. 67(1), Sch. 6 para. 24; S.I. 2023/1145, reg. 3(h)(iv)

4 N.I. Personation

(1) A person shall be guilty of personation if at any election he—

(a) votes or applies for a ballot paper as some other person, whether that other person is a person whose name appears as an elector in the current register or is the proxy of such an elector and whether that other person is living or dead or is a fictitious person; or

(b) votes or applies for a ballot paper as proxy for another person, knowing or having reasonable grounds for supposing that the proxy paper appointing him has been cancelled or that that other person is dead or is a fictitious person.

(2) For the purposes of this paragraph, a person who has marked, whether validly or not, and returned a ballot paper issued for the purpose of voting by post, shall be deemed to have voted.

Offences relating to applications for postal and proxy votes at a local election N.I.

[F2 4A (1) A person (“P”) is guilty of a corrupt practice if P—

(a) engages in an act specified in sub-paragraph (2) at a local election, and

(b) intends, by doing so, to deprive another of an opportunity to vote or to make for P or another a gain of a vote to which P or the other is not otherwise entitled or a gain of money or property.

(2) These are the acts—

(a) applying for a postal or proxy vote as some other person (whether that other person is living or dead or is a fictitious person);

(b) otherwise making a false statement in, or in connection with, an application for a postal or proxy vote;

(c) inducing the registration officer or returning officer to send a postal ballot paper or any communication relating to a postal or proxy vote to an address which has not been agreed to by the person entitled to the vote;

(d) causing a communication relating to a postal or proxy vote or containing a postal ballot paper not to be delivered to the intended recipient.

(3) In sub-paragraph (1)(b), property includes any description of property.

(4) In sub-paragraph (2) a reference to a postal vote or a postal ballot paper includes a reference to a proxy postal vote or a proxy postal ballot paper (as the case may be).

(5) For the purposes of this paragraph—

“postal ballot paper” means a ballot paper issued to a postal voter;

“postal voter” means a person entitled to vote by post at an election as an absent voter or as a proxy; and

“proxy postal ballot paper” means a ballot paper issued to a proxy postal voter.]

F2 Sch. 9 para. 4A inserted (16.12.2010) by Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/2977), arts. 1(2), 4, Sch. 1 para. 30 (with art. 1(3))

5 N.I. Misdemeanours as to proxy voting

[F3 Except at a local election] A person shall be guilty of a misdemeanour as to proxy voting if he—

(a)

votes at any parliamentaryF3 . . . election as proxy for more than two electors of whom he is neither the spouse, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, child or grandchild; or

(b)

not being duly qualified to vote as proxy for another person, so votes;

(c)

votes or applies for a ballot paper as proxy for another person knowing or having reasonable grounds for supposing that that other person—

(i)

is no longer entitled to vote at that election; or

(ii)

is no longer entitled to vote by proxy at that election.

F3 SI 1987/168

Handling of postal voting documents by political campaigners N.I.

[F4 5ZA (1) A person who is a political campaigner in respect of a local election is guilty of a corrupt practice if the person handles a postal voting document that has been issued to another person for use in that election.

(2) But a person who handles a postal voting document for use in a local election is not guilty of a corrupt practice if—

(a) the person is responsible for, or assists with, the conduct of that election (for example as a returning officer or a person working under the direction of a returning officer),

(b) the person is engaged in the business of a postal operator, or

(c) the person is employed or engaged in a role the duties of which include the handling of postal packets on behalf of members of an organisation or the occupants of a communal building,

and the handling is consistent with the person’s duties in that capacity.

(3) Nor is a person guilty of a corrupt practice if the person—

(a) is the other person’s spouse, civil partner, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, child or grandchild, or

(b) provides regular care for, or is employed or engaged by an organisation which provides care for, the other person.

(4) It is a defence for a person charged with the corrupt practice to show that the person did not dishonestly handle the postal voting document for the purpose of promoting a particular outcome at a local election.

(5) Where sufficient evidence is adduced to raise an issue with respect to the defence under sub-paragraph (4), the court must assume that the defence is satisfied unless the prosecution proves beyond reasonable doubt that it is not.

(6) For the purposes of this paragraph a person is a political campaigner in respect of a local election if any of the following paragraphs applies—

(a) the person is a candidate at the election;

(b) the person is an election agent of a candidate at the election;

(c) the person is employed or engaged by a person who is a candidate at the election for the purposes of that person’s activities as a candidate;

(d) the person is a member of a registered political party and carries on an activity designed to promote a particular outcome at the election;

(e) the person is employed or engaged by a registered political party in connection with the party’s political activities;

(f) the person is employed or engaged by a person within any of paragraphs (a) to (e) to carry on an activity designed to promote a particular outcome at the election;

(g) the person is employed or engaged by a person within paragraph (f) to carry on an activity designed to promote a particular outcome at the election.

(7) In this paragraph—

• “postal operator” has the same meaning as in Part 3 of the Postal Services Act 2011 (see section 27(3) to (5) of that Act);

• “postal voting document” means a postal ballot paper, declaration of identity or envelope that has been issued to a person by the returning officer for the purpose of enabling the person to vote by post at a local election;

• “registered political party” means a party registered under Part 2 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

(8) For the purposes of this paragraph, an envelope—

(a) that is not a postal voting document, but

(b) that contains a postal ballot paper or declaration of identity that has been issued to a person for the purpose of enabling the person to vote by post at a local election,

is to be treated as if it were a postal voting document that has been issued to the person for use in the election.

(9) In this paragraph, any reference to a person who is “engaged” by another person, or to a person who provides care for another person, includes a reference to a person who is engaged or provides care otherwise than for payment or promise of payment.

(10) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (3)(a), two people living together as if spouses of each other are treated as if they were spouses or civil partners of each other.]

F4 Sch. 9 para. 5ZA and cross-heading inserted (12.12.2023) by Elections Act 2022 (c. 37), s. 67(1), Sch. 6 para. 25; S.I. 2023/1234, reg. 2(e)(iii) (with reg. 3)

False statements in nomination papers, etc. N.I.

[F5 5A [F6 (1)] A person is guilty of a corrupt practice if he causes or permits to be included in a document delivered or otherwise furnished to a returning officer for use in connection with a local election—

(a) a statement of the name or home address of a candidate at the election which he knows to be false in any particular; F7 . . .

(b) anything which purports to be the signature of an elector who proposes, seconds or assents to, the nomination of such a candidate but which he knows—

(i) was not written by the elector by whom it purports to have been written, or

(ii) if written by that elector, was not written by him for the purpose of signifying that he was proposing, seconding, or (as the case may be) assenting to, that candidate's nomination; [F8 or

(c) a certificate authorising for the purposes of rule 5A of the Local Elections Rules the use by a candidate of a description if the person knows that the candidate is standing at another election in the same local government electoral area in which the poll is to be held on the same day as the election to which the certificate relates.]

[F9 (2) A person (“P”) is guilty of a corrupt practice if, in any document giving consent to his or her nomination as a candidate at a local election, P makes—

(a) a statement of P's date of birth;

(b) a statement as to P's qualification for being elected at that election; or

(c) a statement that P is not a candidate at an election in the same local government electoral area the poll for which is to be held on the same day as the election to which the consent relates;

which P knows to be false in any particular.

(3) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2), a statement as to P's qualification is a statement—

(a) that P is qualified for being elected,

(b) that P will be qualified for being elected, or

(c) that to the best of P's knowledge and belief P is not disqualified for being elected.]]

F5 SI 2001/417

F6 Sch. 9 para. 5A renumbered (16.12.2010) as Sch. 9 para. 5A(1) by Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/2977), arts. 1(2), 4, Sch. 1 para. 31(1) (with art. 1(3))

F7 Word in Sch. 9 para. 5A(1) omitted (16.12.2010) by virtue of Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/2977), arts. 1(2), 4, Sch. 1 para. 31(2) (with art. 1(3))

F8 Sch. 9 para. 5A(1)(c) and word inserted (16.12.2010) by Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/2977), arts. 1(2), 4, Sch. 1 para. 31(2) (with art. 1(3))

F9 Sch. 9 para. 5A(2)(3) inserted (16.12.2010) by Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/2977), arts. 1(2), 4, Sch. 1 para. 31(3) (with art. 1(3))

6 N.I. Making a false declaration as to election expenses

A candidate or an election agent shall be guilty of making a false declaration as to election expenses if he knowingly makes the declaration required by section forty-seven falsely.

7 N.I. Incurring unauthorised expenses

A person shall be guilty of incurring unauthorised expenses if he incurs, or aids, abets, counsels or procures any other person to incur, any expenses in contravention of section forty-one or knowingly makes the declaration required by sub-section (5) or that section falsely.

8 N.I. Attempting or conspiring to commit a corrupt practice

A person shall be guilty of a corrupt practice if he attempts or conspires to commit any of the corrupt practices numbered 1 to 7 in this Part.

9 N.I. Aiding and abetting the commission of a corrupt practice

A person shall be guilty of a corrupt practice if he aids, abets, counsels or procures the commission of any of the corrupt practices numbered 1 to 8 in this Part or knowingly induces some other person to do an act which is, or but for that other person's want of knowledge would be, such a corrupt practice.