Saint Lucia

The House of Assembly (Elections) Act (1979)

Updated: June 2015

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Section 13 states:

A person is disqualified from being registered as an elector who

  • (a) is a person certified to be insane or otherwise adjudged to be of unsound mind under any enactment in force in Saint Lucia…

 

Section 26, subsection 1 states:

Every person who knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that he---…

  • (e) is subject to any legal incapacity as is mentioned in section 13; makes any claim to be included in any list or register shall be liable on summary conviction to the fine of two hundred and fifty dollars or to imprisonment for six months.

 

Section 30, subsection 3 states:

If at any time between the issue of a writ for an election and the declaration of the result of that election the returning officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties as such, the election clerk shall forthwith report the fact to the Commission and shall discharge all the duties and exercise all the powers of the returning officer until some other returning officer is appointed or the returning officer ceases to be incapable of performing his duties, as the case may be.

 

Section 33, subsection 3 states:

If any presiding officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties during the taking of the poll, the poll clerk shall forthwith assume the office of the presiding officer and shall appoint some other person to act as poll clerk.

 

Section 59, subsection 2 states:

(a) The presiding officer shall instruct the elector how to make his mark and shall properly fold the elector’s ballot paper keeping the counterfoil, directing him to return with the ballot paper when marked, folded as shown, but shall not inquire or see for whom the elector intends to vote except when the elector is unable to vote in the manner provided by this Act on account of blindness or other physical incapacity;

(b) In instructing the elector how to make his mark the presiding officer shall only inform him to mark his ballot paper by marking with a black lead pencil which he will find in the polling compartment a cross within the space containing the name and symbol of the candidate for whom he intends to vote. For the purposes of this subsection the presiding officer shall not use a ballot paper or any other similar paper.

 

Section 60, subsection 3 states:

The presiding officer, on the application of any elector who is incapacitated, from any physical cause other than blindness, from voting in the manner provided by this Act, shall require the elector making such application to make oath in the form set out as Form No. 17 in the Third Schedule of his incapacity to vote without assistance and shall thereafter assist such elector by marking his ballot paper in the manner directed by such elector in the presence of the poll clerk and of the sworn agents of the candidates and of no other person and shall place such ballot in the ballot box.

 

Section 60, subsection 6 states:

whenever any elector has had his ballot paper marked as provided in subsection (3) or (4), the poll clerk shall enter into the poll book opposite the elector's name…the reason why such ballot paper was so marked.

 

Section 94, subsection 3 states:

Without prejudice to the generality of paragraphs (a) to (d) of subsection (1) and subsection (2) Statutory Instruments made with respect to the matters therein mentioned may contain provisions---…

  • (d) as to the evidence which shall or may be required or deemed sufficient or conclusive evidence of a person being subject to any physical incapacity and as to its probable duration;…

 

Excerpts from the House of Assembly (Elections) Act (1979)

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Section 60, subsection 4 states:

The presiding officer shall either deal with a blind elector in the same manner as with an otherwise incapacitated elector, or, at the request of any blind elector who has taken the oath in Form No. 18…and is accompanied by a friend who is a elector in the polling division, shall permit such friend to accompany the blind elector into the voting compartment and mark the elector's ballot paper for him. No person shall at any election be allowed to act as such friend to more than one blind elector.

 

Section 60, subsection 5 states:

Any friend who is permitted to mark the ballot paper of a blind elector as aforesaid shall first be required to take an oath in the form set out as Form No. 19 in the Third Schedule.

 

Section 60, subsection 6 states:

...whenever any elector has had his ballot paper marked as provided in subsection (3) or (4), the poll clerk shall enter into the poll book opposite the elector's name…the reason why such ballot paper was so marked.

 

Section 74, subsection 1 states:

Every election officer who--- …

  • (c) permits any person whom he knows or has reasonable cause to believe to be a blind person or an incapacitated person to vote in the manner provided for blind persons or incapacitated persons, as the case may be; or
  • (d) willfully prevents any person from voting at the polling station at which he knows or has reasonable cause to believe such person is entitled to vote…shall be guilty of an offence against third section and on conviction on indictment, shall be liable to imprisonment for two years.

 

Excerpts from the House of Assembly (Elections) Act (1979)

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Section 30, subsection 3 states:

If at any time between the issue of a writ for an election and the declaration of the result of that election the returning officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties as such, the election clerk shall forthwith report the fact to the Commission and shall discharge all the duties and exercise all the powers of the returning officer until some other returning officer is appointed or the returning officer ceases to be incapable of performing his duties, as the case may be.

 

Section 33, subsection 3 states:

If any presiding officer dies or becomes incapable of performing his duties during the taking of the poll, the poll clerk shall forthwith assume the office of the presiding officer and shall appoint some other person to act as poll clerk.

 

Excerpts from the House of Assembly (Elections) Act (1979)