Electoral Act, 1992

Amendment of Referendum Act, 1942.

168.—The Referendum Act, 1942 is hereby amended by—

(a) the substitution for “section 22 of the Prevention of ElectoralAbuses Act, 1923” of “ section 60 (3) of the Electoral Act, 1992” in subsection (7) (b) of section 17;

(b) the substitution of the following section for section 29:

“Application of Electoral Act, 1992.

29.—(1) Sections 105 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 138 , 139 , 140 , 145 , 146 , 147 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 156 , 157 , 158 and 160 of the Electoral Act, 1992 shall apply and have effect in relation to every referendum.

(2) For the purpose of the application of the said sections of the Electoral Act, 1992 to a referendum in pursuance of the foregoing subsection—

(a) the expressions ‘election’ and ‘Dáil election’ wherever they are used in the said sections of the said Act shall be construed and have effect as including a referendum;

(b) the expression ‘register of Dáil electors’ wherever it is used in the said sections of the said Act shall be construed and have effect as meaning the register of presidential electors and any reference to ‘Dáil elector’ or ‘elector’ shall be construed and have effect as a reference to a presidential elector;

(c) references in the said sections of the said Act to ‘candidates’, ‘election of any person’ and ‘voting for a particular person’ shall be disregarded;

(d) in section 134 of the said Act the reference to ‘section 102’ shall be construed and have effect as a reference to Rule 20 of the First Schedule to this Act and the reference to ‘section 68’ shall be construed and have effect as a reference to section 20 of this Act;

(e) in section 138 of the said Act, the references to ‘nomination paper’ and ‘certificate of political affiliation’ shall be disregarded and the reference to ‘authorisation under section 99 ’ shall be construed and have effect as a reference to a certificate under section 66 of the Electoral Act, 1963 and the reference to ‘authorisation under section 100 ’ shall be construed and have effect as a reference to an authorisation under section 14 of the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 1986 ;

(f) the reference in section 139 of the said Act to a period of time shall be construed and have effect as a reference to the period commencing on the date of the order appointing the polling day at the referendum and ending at the close of the poll at such referendum;

(g) in section 140 of the said Act the expression ‘returning officer’ shall be construed and have effect as including the referendum returning officer;

(h) in section 156 of the said Act the words ‘the decision of such court’ shall be construed as meaning the final order of the High Court on the trial of a referendum petition.”;

(c) the substitution of the following definition for the definition of the expression “corrupt practice” in section 33:

“the expression ‘corrupt practice’ means—

(a) the offence of personation within the meaning of section 134 of the Electoral Act, 1992 or aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of the said offence,

(b) the offence of bribery within the meaning of section 135 of the said Act, or

(c) the offence of undue influence within the meaning of section 136 of the said Act.”; and

(d) the insertion of the following section after section 34:

“Leave to present petition.

34A.—(1) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Part, a referendum petition in relation to the provisional referendum certificatereferred to in section 30 shall not be presented to the High Court unless that court, on application made to it in that behalf by or on behalf of the person proposing to present it, not later than 10 days after the publication in the Iris Oifigiúil of the certificate, by order grants leave to the person to do so.

(2) The High Court shall not grant leave under subsection (1) of this section to present a referendum petition unless it is satisfied—

(i) that there is prima facie evidence of a matter referred to in section 34 (2) of this Act in relation to which the petition concerned questions the provisional referendum certificate, and

(ii) that the said matter is such as to affect materially the result of the referendum aforesaid as a whole.”.