XXXIX. This Act shall continue in force for one year next after the passing thereof, and thenceforth to the end of the then next session of Parliament. Abstract of Schedule A. ACTS, OR PART OF ACTS, REPEALED BY SECTION I. 7th William III., cap. 4. 2nd George II., cap. 24. section, prescribing officers. The whole Act. A.D. 1695. A.D. 1729. All the Act, excepting the third the oath to be taken by the returning The 33rd section. 16th George II., cap. 11. A.D. 1809. A.D. 1823. cap. 65. The whole Act. The whole Act. 48th, 79th, and 81st sections. A.D. 1827. The whole Act. A.D. 1832. So much of the 26th section and the schedule (K) as relates to the oath or affirmation against bribery, to be put to any registered voter at any poll or election. 2nd and 3rd William IV., cap. 88. A.D. 1832. So much of the 54th section as relates to administering the oath or affirmation against bribery. 5th and 6th Victoriæ, cap. 102. The 20th and 22nd sections. First Continuance Act. 19th & 20th Victoria Regina, cap. 84. Second Continuance Act. [June, 1856.] Act 21st & 22nd Victoria, cap. 87, an Act to continue and amend the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854. [2nd August, 1858.] WHEREAS an Act was passed in the Session holden in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter One hundred and two, to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to Bribery, Treating, and "undue Influence at Elections of Members of Parliament;" and by an Act of the Session holden in the nineteenth and twentieth years of Her Majesty, Chapter Eighty-four, the said first-mentioned Act was continued until the Tenth Day of August, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, and thenceforth to the end of the then next Session of Parliament: And whereas it is expedient that the said first-mentioned Act should be further continued and amended: Be it enacted, &c., that I. It shall be lawful for any candidate, or his agent by him appointed in writing according to the provisions of the first-mentioned Act, to provide conveyance for any voter for the purpose of polling at an Election and not otherwise, but it shall not be lawful to pay any money or give any valuable consideration to a voter for or in respect of his travelling expenses for such purpose. Part of Section 1, and the whole of Section 2, are repealed by the 26th Vic., cap 29. in III. So much of Section Thirty-eight of the said first-mentioned Act as defines the words "Candidate at an Election," shall be repealed; and in the construction of the said Act as amended by this Act, the words "Candidate at an Election," and the words "Candidate at any Election," shall include all persons elected to serve Parliament at such election, and all persons nominated as Candidates at such election, or who shall have declared themselves Candidates on or after the day of the issuing of the writ for such election, or after the dissolution or vacancy in consequence of which such writ shall have been issued: Provided that nothing herein contained shall be construed to impose any liability on any person nominated without his consent. Third Continuance Act. Anno 23° & 24° Victoria Reginæ, cap. 99. [20th August, 1860.] "The said first-mentioned Act (17th and 18th Victoriæ, cap. 102), as amended by the said Act of the twenty-first and twenty-second years of Her Majesty, shall continue in force until the tenth day of August, 1861." Fourth Continuance Act. Anno 24 & 25 Vic. cap. 122. [6th August, 1861.] Fifth Continuance Act. Anno 25 & 26 Vic. cap. 109. [7th August, 1862.] The Act further continued in force until the 1st day of September, 1863. Sixth Continuance Act. An Act to amend and continue the Law relating to Corrupt Practices at Elections of Members of Parliament. [8th June, 1863.] WHEREAS "The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854," as amended by an Act of the Session holden in the twenty-first and twenty-second years of Her Majesty, chapter eighty-seven, is limited to continue in force until the first day of September One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and from thence until the end of the next Session of Parliament: and it is expedient further to amend the said Acts and to continue the same in manner hereinafter mentioned: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: I. The expression "The Corrupt Practices Prevention Acts" shall include this Act and the said Act of the twenty-first and twenty-second years of the reign of Her present Majesty, and "The Corrupt Practices "Prevention Act, 1854," as amended by the said other Acts. Expenses of Elections. II. No payment (except in respect to the personal expenses of a candidate), and no advance, loan, or deposit, shall be made by or on behalf of any candidate at an election, before, or during, or after such election, on account of or in respect of such election, otherwise than through an agent or agents whose name and address or names and addresses have been declared in writing to the returning officer on or before the day of nomination, or through an agent or agents to be appointed in his or their place as herein provided; and any person making any such payment, advance, loan, or deposit, otherwise than through such agent or agents, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, or, in Scotland of an offence punishable by fine and imprisonment. It shall be the duty of the returning officer to publish, on or before the day of nomination, the name and address or the names and addresses of the agent or agents appointed in pursuance of this section. In the event of the death or legal incapacity of any agent appointed in pursuance of this section, the candidate shall forthwith appoint another agent in his place on giving notice to the returning officer of the name and address of the person so appointed, which shall be forthwith published by the returning officer. III. All persons who have any bills, charges, or claims upon any candidate for or in respect of any election shall send in such bills, charges, or claims, within one month from the day of the declaration of the election to such agent or agents as aforesaid, otherwise such persons shall be barred of their right to recover such claims and every or any part thereof: provided always, that in case of the death within the said month of any person claiming the amount of such bill, charge, or claim, the legal representative of such person shall send in such bill, charge, or claim within one month after obtaining probate or letters of administration, or confirmation as executor, as the case may be, or the right to recover such claim shall be barred as aforesaid: provided also that such bills, charges, and claims shall and may be sent in and delivered to the candidate, if, and so long as, during the said month, there shall, owing to death or legal incapacity, be no such agent. IV. A detailed statement of all election expenses incurred by or on behalf of any candidate, including such excepted payments as aforesaid, shall, within two months after the election, (or in cases where by reason of the death of the creditor no bill has been sent in within such period of two months, then within one month after such bill has been sent in,) be made out and signed by the agent or, if there be more than one, by every agent who has paid the same (including the candidate in case of payments made by him), and delivered, with the bills and vouchers relative thereto, to the returning officer, and the returning officer for the time being shall, at the expense of the candidate, within fourteen days, insert or cause to be inserted, an abstract of such statement, with the signature of the agent thereto, in some newspaper published or circulating in the county or place where the election was held; and any agent or candidate who makes default in delivering to the returning officer the statement required by this section shall incur a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day during which he so makes default; and any agent or candidate who wilfully furnishes to the said returning officer an untrue statement shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, or in Scotland of an offence punishable by fine and imprisonment; and the said returning officer shall preserve all such bills and vouchers, and during six months after they have been delivered to him permit any voter to inspect the same, on payment of a fee of one shilling. Legal Proceedings. V. The provisions of the fourteenth section of "The Corrupt "Practices Prevention Act, 1854," shall extend to a misdemeanor or to any other offence under the Corrupt Practices Prevention Acts not punishable by a penalty or forfeiture, as well as to proceedings for any offence punishable by a penalty or forfeiture. VI. In any indictment or information for bribery or undue influence, and in any action or proceeding for any penalty for bribery, treating, or undue influence, it shall be sufficient to allege that the defendant was at the election at or in connexion with which the offence is intended to be alleged to have been committed guilty of bribery, treating, or undue influence (as the case may require); and in any criminal or civil proceedings in relation to any such offence the certificate of the returning officer in this behalf shall be sufficient evidence of the due holding of the election, and of any person therein named having been a candidate thereat. VII. No person who is called as a witness before any election committee, or any commissioners appointed in pursuance of the Act of the session holden in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter fifty-seven, shall be excused from answering any question relating to any corrupt practice at, or connected with, any election forming the subject of inquiry by such committee or commissioners, on the ground that the answer thereto may criminate or tend to criminate himself: Provided always, that where any witness shall answer every question relating to the matters aforesaid which he shall be required by such committee or commissioners (as the case may be) to answer, and the answer to which may criminate, or tend to criminate him, he shall be entitled to receive from the committee, under the hand of their clerk, or from the commissioners, under their hands (as the case may be), a certificate stating that such witness was, upon his examination, required by the said committee or commissioners to answer questions or a question relating to the matters aforesaid, the answers or answer to which criminated or tended to criminate him, and had answered all such questions or such question; and if any information, indictment, or action be at any time thereafter pending in any court against such witness for any offence under the Corrupt Practices Prevention Acts, or for which he might have been prosecuted or proceeded against under such acts, committed by him previously to the time of his giving his evidence, and at or in relation to the election concerning or in relation to which the witness may have been so examined, the court shall, on production and proof of such certificate, stay the proceedings in such last-mentioned information, indictment, or action, and may, at its discretion, award to such witness such costs as he may have been put to in such information, indictment, or action: Provided that no statement made by any person in answer to any question put by or before such election committee or commissioners shall, except in cases of indictments for perjury, be admissible in evidence in any proceeding, civil or criminal. Election Committees. VIII. The following regulations shall be made with respect to the proceedings of select committees appointed to try election petitions: 1. On any charge of treating being brought before any election committee, it shall not be necessary, unless the committee should otherwise decide, to prove agency in the first instance before giving in evidence the facts whereby the charge of treating is to be sustained: 2. Where any person who has voted at any election is found by any committee to have been guilty of bribery or treating at such election, his vote shall be void, and may, upon a scrutiny, be struck off the list of voters, notwithstanding that the name of such guilty person has not been included in the list of voters to be objected to: 3. Where any election petition complains that bribery, treating, or other corrupt practices have been committed at any election, the committee to whose determination such petition is referred shall report to the House of Commons whether or not corrupt practices have, or whether there is reason to believe corrupt practices have, extensively prevailed at such election in the place to which the petition refers. IX. Where an election committee has reported to the House of Commons that certain persons named by them have been guilty of bribery or treating, and where it appears by the report of any commission of inquiry into corrupt practices at any election made to Her Majesty and laid before Parliament that certain persons named by them have been guilty of the offences of bribery or treating, and have not been furnished by them with certificates of indemnity, such report, with the evidence taken by the commission, shall be laid before the Attorney General, with a view to his instituting a prosecution against such persons if the evidence should, in his opinion, be sufficient to support a pro secution. Repeal. X. There shall be repealed the several Acts of Parliament mentioned in the Schedule hereto to the extent specified in the third column of the said Schedule, but such repeal shall not affect the punishment of any offence or the recovery of any penalty or forfeiture incurred under any of the provisions hereby repealed. XI. The Corrupt Practices Prevention Acts shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date of the passing of this Act, and from thenceforth until the end of the then next session of Parliament. The Schedule. Extent of Repeal. 15th and 16th Vic., cap 57. A.D. 1852. Sections 9 and 10. 17th and 18th Vic., cap. 102. A.D. 1854. Sections 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 34. 21st and 22nd Vic., cap. 87. A.D. 1858. So much of Section (1) as provides that a full, true, and particular account of all payments made for such conveyance, signed by the candidate or his agents, shall be delivered to the election auditor, with the names and addresses of the persons to whom such payments have been made, and the amount of such account shall be included in the general account of the expenses incurred at any election to be made out and kept by such election auditor. Also Sections 2, 4. |