§ MR. THOMAS ELLIS (Merionethshire)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether it is the case that a Local Government elector who removes from a parish outside a municipal borough to a parish within a municipal borough, both parishes being within the boundaries of the same administrative county, is deprived of his qualification as a county elector under the provisions relating to successive occupation, in consequence of his not being qualified as a burgess of the borough, no provision being made in the Local Government Act or the County Electors Act for the preparation of separate lists of burgesses, and of county electors who may reside within a municipal borough; and whether it was the intention of the Government, in framing the Local Government Act and the County Electors Act, to impose such a deprivation upon persons so removing; and, if not, whether he will take steps to remove any misapprehension which may exist as to the state of the Law, and to secure to all persons duly qualified full opportunity of exercising their electoral rights?
§ * MR. RITCHIEA person cannot vote at an election of County Councillors within a borough unless he is registered as a burgess of that borough. He can only be registered as a burgess of the borough it he has occupied during the whole 12 months immediately preceding the 15th of July qualifying premises within the borough. The successive occupation of such premises in the borough during this period will suffice, but it it is not enough that during part of the time he has occupied qualifying premises in the county and outside the borough. He need not have resided during the whole 12 months in the borough. It is sufficient if he has resided in the borough or within seven miles of it. It was not intended that a 791 person should vote at an election of County Councillors in a borough, unless he was registered as a burgess. Section 2 (4) of the Local Government Act expressly provides that the persons entitled to vote at the election of County Councillors shall be in a borough the burgesses enrolled in pursuance of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, and the Acts amending the same.