§ (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, any person who is registered under this Act as a local government elector for any local government area—
- (a) in the service register; or
- (b) in pursuance of an application under this Act made by a member of the forces, seaman or other person on a form of declaration of residence, in the business premises register;
§ (2) A person shall not be entitled to vote by proxy under this section except by the proxy appointed by him for the purpose of parliamentary elections by virtue of the declaration of residence or application in pursuance of which he is registered in the said register:
- Provided that the foregoing provisions of this Sub-section shall not apply to persons disqualified as peers from registration as parliamentary electors, but electoral registration regulations shall provide for conferring on them as nearly as may be the like rights as to the appointment of a proxy, and the cancellation of any such appointment, for the purposes of this section as if they were not so disqualified.
- (3) A person may vote in person at a local government election, notwithstanding that he is entitled to vote by proxy at that election, but only if he applies for a ballot paper before a ballot paper has been issued to the proxy, and in that event the appointment of the proxy shall be void as respects that election.
- Nothing in paragraph (b) of Sub-section (1) of Section eighty-two of the Local Government Act, 1933, or in paragraph (b) of Subsection (1) of Section fifty-six of the London Government Act, 1939, shall be taken to penalise a person who, after a proxy appointed by him has voted under this Section, applies for a ballot paper for the purpose of voting in person.
- (4) Paragraphs 12, 15 (except sub-paragraphs (a) and (d) thereof) 16 and 17 of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1943 (which relate to the voting of proxies at parliamentary elections) shall apply to the voting of proxies at local government elections under this Section.
- (5) The Second Schedule to the Local Government Act, 1933, or the London Government Act, 1939, as the case may be,
289 and any other enactment regulating the holding of local government elections, including any provisions imposing penalties in connection with voting at those elections, shall apply to persons voting as proxies under this Section as they apply to electors, subject however to the provisions of this Section and to such modifications as may be prescribed for the purpose of adapting them to voting by proxy. - (6) In the application of this Section to Scotland—
- (a) for any reference to paragraph (b) of Sub-section (1) of Section eighty-two of the Local Government Act, 1933, there shall be substituted a reference to Section twenty-four of the Ballot Act, 1872, as extended or applied by any subsequent enactment;
- (b) Sub-section (5) shall have effect as if the reference to the Second Schedule to the Local Government Act, 1933, or the London Government Act, 1939, were omitted.—[Mr. H. Morrison.]
§ Brought up, and read the First and Second time, and added to the Bill.