(4) Within five days after service of the notice the respondent may object in writing to any recognisance on the ground that any surety is insufficient or is dead, or cannot be found or ascertained for want of a sufficient description in the recognisance, or that a person named in the recognisance has not duly acknowledged the same.

(5.) An objection to a recognisance shall be decided in the prescribed manner.

(6.) If the objection is allowed, the petitioner may, within a further prescribed time not exceeding five days, remove it by a deposit in the prescribed manner of such sum of money as will, in the opinion of the court or officer having cognisance of the matter, make the security sufficient.

(7.) If no security is given, as prescribed, or any objection is allowed and is not removed, as aforesaid, no further proceedings shall be had on the petition.

In Williams v. Mayor of Tenby and others, it was held that these provisions are peremptory, and an appeal against an order of a judge at chambers that a municipal election petition should be taken off the file on the ground that these conditions had not been fulfilled, was dismissed. L. R., 5 C. P. D. 135; 49 L. J., C. P. 325.

As to respondents, see note to sec. 88.

As to the term "prescribed” and rules of procedure, see secs. 77 and 100.

Petition at Issue.

90. On the expiration of the time limited for making objections, or, after objection made, on the objection being disallowed or removed, whichever last happens, the petition shall be at issue.

Municipal Election List.

91.-(1.) The prescribed officer shall as soon as may be make a list, in this Act referred to as the municipal election list, of all election petitions at issue, placing them in the order in which they were presented, and shall keep at his office a copy of this list, open to inspection in the prescribed

manner.

(2.) The petitions shall, as far as conveniently may be, be tried in the order in which they stand in the list.

(3.) Two or more candidates may be made respondents to the same petition, and their cases may be tried at the same time, but for the purposes of this Part the petition

shall be deemed to be a separate petition against each respondent.

(4) Where more petitions than one are presented relating to the same election, or to elections held at the same time for different wards of the same borough, they shall be bracketed together in the list as one petition, but shall, unless the High Court otherwise directs, stand in the list in the place where the last of them would have stood if it had been the only petition relating to that election.

As to the term "prescribed," see secs. 77 and 100.

Constitution of Election Court.

92. (1.) An election petition shall be tried by an election court consisting of a barrister qualified and appointed as in this section provided, without a jury.

(2.) A barrister shall not be qualified to constitute an election court if he is of less than fifteen years standing, or is a member of the Commons House of Parliament, or holds any office or place of profit under the Crown, other than that of recorder.

(3.) A barrister shall not be qualified to constitute an election court for trial of an election petition relating to any borough for which he is recorder, or in which he resides, or which is included in a circuit of Her Majesty's judges on which he practises as a barrister.

(4.) As soon as may be after a municipal election list is made out the prescribed officer shall send a copy thereof to each of the judges for the time being on the rota for the trial of parliamentary election petitions; and those judges or two of them shall forthwith determine the number of barristers, not exceeding five at any one time, necessary to be appointed for the trial of the election petitions at issue, and shall appoint that number accordingly as commissioners under this Part, and shall assign the petitions to be tried by each.

(5.) If a commissioner to whom the trial of a petition is assigned, dies, or declines or becomes incapable to act, the said judges or two of them may assign the trial to be conducted or continued by any other of the commissioners appointed under this section.

(6.) The election court shall for the purposes of the trial have the same powers and privileges as a judge on the trial of a parliamentary election petition, except that any fine

or order of committal by the court may on motion by the person aggrieved be discharged or varied by the High Court, or in vacation by a judge thereof, on such terms, if any, as the High Court or judge thinks fit.

As to the term "prescribed," see secs. 77 and 100.

Trial of Election Petition.

93.—(1.) An election petition shall be tried in open court, and notice of the time and place of trial shall be given in the prescribed manner not less than seven days before the day of trial.

(2.) The place of trial shall be within the borough, except that the High Court may, on being satisfied that special circumstances exist rendering it desirable that the petition should be tried elsewhere, appoint some other convenient place for the trial.

(3.) The election court may in its discretion adjourn the trial from time to time, and from any one place to any other place within the borough or place where it is held.

(4) At the conclusion of the trial the election court shall determine whether the person whose election is complained of, or any and what other person, was duly elected, or whether the election was void, and shall forthwith certify in writing the determination to the High Court, and the determination so certified shall be final to all intents as to the matters at issue on the petition.

(5.) Where a charge is made in a petition of any corrupt practice or offence against this Part having been committed at the election the court shall, in addition to the certificate, and at the same time, report in writing to the High Court as follows:

(a.) Whether any corrupt practice or offence against this Part has or has not been proved to have been committed by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate at the election, and the nature of the corrupt practice or offence;

With reference to the term "prescribed," see secs. 77 and 100.

From the decision in ex parte Fitzgerald and Flint, 39 L. J., Ex. 17, it would appear that the Court are not obliged to adjourn at the close of each meeting in order to keep their powers alive.

As the Court for the purposes of the trial of a petition have the same powers and privileges as a judge has on the trial of a Parliamentary election petition, the Court of a judge who tries an election petition is a Court of record, and its judgment can only be proved by the record. R. v. Mayor, &c.. of Maidenhead, 51 L. J. (c.a.), Q. B. D. 444.

As to corrupt practices or offences against this Part, see secs. 77, 78, 82, and 83.

(b.) The names of all persons (if any) proved at the trial to have been guilty of any corrupt practice or offence against this Part;

(c.) Whether any corrupt practices have, or whether there is reason to believe that any corrupt practices have, extensively prevailed at the election in the borough or in any ward thereof.

(6.) The election court may at the same time make a special report to the High Court as to any matters arising in the course of the trial, an account of which ought, in the judgment of the election court, to be submitted to the High Court.

(7.) If, on the application of any party to a petition made in the prescribed manner to the High Court, it appears to the High Court that the case raised by the petition can be conveniently stated as a special case, the High Court may direct the same to be stated accordingly, and any such special case shall be heard before the High Court, and the decision of the High Court shall be final.

(8.) If it appears to the election court on the trial of a petition that any question of law as to the admissibility of evidence, or otherwise, requires further consideration by the High Court, the election court may postpone the granting of a certificate until the question has been determined by the High Court, and for this purpose may reserve any such question, as questions may be reserved by a judge on a trial at nisi prius.

(9.) On the trial of a petition, unless the election court otherwise directs, any charge of a corrupt practice or offence against this Part may be gone into, and evidence in relation thereto received before any proof has been given of agency on behalf of any candidate in respect of the corrupt practice or offence.

(10.) On the trial of a petition complaining of an undue election and claiming the office for some person, the respondent may give evidence to prove that that person was not duly elected, in the same manner as if he had presented a petition against the election of that person.

(11.) The trial of a petition shall be proceeded with notwithstanding that the respondent has ceased to hold the office his election to which is questioned by the petition.

(12.) A copy of any certificate or report made to the High Court on the trial of a petition, and, in the case of a decision by the High Court on a special case, a statement

of the decision shall be sent by the High Court to the Secretary of State.

(13.) A copy of any such certificate and a statement of any such decision shall also be certified by the High Court, under the hands of two or more judges thereof, to the town clerk of the borough.

Witnesses.

94.-(1.) Witnesses at the trial of an election petition shall be summoned and sworn in the same manner, as nearly as circumstances admit, as witnesses at a trial at nisi prius, and shall be liable to the same penalties for perjury.

(2.) On the trial the election court may, by order in writing, require any person who appears to the court to have been concerned in the election to attend as a witness, and any person refusing to obey the order shall be guilty of contempt of court.

(3.) The court may examine any person so required to attend or being in court, although he is not called and examined by any party to the petition.

(4) A witness may, after his examination by the court, be cross-examined by or on behalf of the petitioner and respondent or either of them.

(5.) A witness on an election petition shall not be excused from answering any question relating to a corrupt practice or offence against this Part committed at or connected with the election on the ground that the answer thereto may criminate or tend to criminate him; but if he answers it he shall be entitled to receive from the court a certificate stating that he was on his examination required by the court to answer questions the answers whereto criminated or tended to criminate him, and that he answered all such questions.

As to corrupt practices or offences against this Part, see secs. 77, 78, 82, 83. (6.) If any information, indictment, or action is at any time thereafter pending against the witness in any court for any corrupt practice or offence against this Part committed at or in relation to the election before the time of his giving his evidence, that court shall, on production and proof of the certificate, stay the proceedings, and may, in its discretion, award to him such costs as he has been put to therein.

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