Explanatory note

This Order makes miscellaneous amendments to the law relating to local elections in Northern Ireland.

Article 3 increases the maximum amount of a candidate’s election expenses at local elections in Northern Ireland. The maximum amount is made up of a fixed sum (expressed in pounds) plus a sum expressed in pence (and fractions of pence) for each entry in the register of electors. Article 2 revokes the Order by which that maximum amount was previously increased.

Article 4(2) varies the list of documents in rule 34(6) of the local elections rules in Schedule 5 to the Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962 (as substituted) by making an addition to it. Under rule 34(2) a ballot paper must not be delivered to a voter at a polling station unless he has produced a document on that list to the presiding officer or a clerk. Article 4(3) amends the back of the form of an elector’s official poll card to take account of the amendment made by article 4(2). It also makes amendments to take account of the changes made by paragraph 41 of Schedule 1 to the Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 1987. The back of the elector’s official poll card lists the documents of which one must be produced at a polling station for the voter to be given a ballot paper. Form 7 of the forms set out in the Appendix to the said Schedule 5 (as substituted) provides that the back of the form of a proxy’s official poll card is to be the same as the back of an elector’s official poll card.

This Order also amends the provisions about the entitlement to an absent vote for an indefinite period at local elections in Northern Ireland in the Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 to make provision equivalent to that made for parliamentary elections there by section 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1990 (c. 32) and the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) (Variation of Specified Documents and Amendment) Regulations 1991 (S.I. 1991/1674).

Article 5 makes an amendment to make a person eligible for an absent vote at local elections for an indefinite period if he is no longer resident at his qualifying address or at any other address in the same ward as that of the qualifying address; in spite of the reference to “an indefinite period”, the entitlement expires with the register of electors in relation to which the application was made.

Article 6 makes an amendment to require an applicant under the new provision to give the address, if any, at which he is currently resident and thereby enables the Chief Electoral Officer to determine whether or not the new address is in the same ward as the old address.