Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 1986

Voting by electors referred to in section 15 of this Act.

16.—(1) The provisions of the Acts in relation to postal voting shall apply to the issue of ballot papers to, and the return of such ballot papers by, electors whose names are entered in the postal voters list pursuant to section 15 of this Act subject to the following modifications—

(a) an elector whose name is so entered in the postal voters list, in order to cast his vote, shall, in the presence of an authorised person and no other person, do the following things in the following order—

(i) produce to the authorised person a ballot paper (in relation to which the authorised person shall satisfy himself that it is unmarked) and a form of declaration of identity in the prescribed form;

(ii) complete and sign the said declaration of identity;

(iii) hand the declaration of identity to the authorised person who shall, if he is satisfied as to the identity of the person who has signed the declaration of identity, witness the signature;

(iv) mark, in secret, his ballot paper;

(v) place the marked ballot paper in the ballot paper envelope and effectually seal such envelope;

(vi) place the ballot paper envelope and the completed declaration of identity in the covering envelope and effectually seal that envelope.

(b) a reference to “receipt”, in relation to documents appropriate to such electors, shall be construed as a reference to “declaration of identity”, and

(c) a reference to “receipt duly signed”, in relation to such documents, shall be construed as a reference to “declaration of identity duly signed and witnessed”.

(2) In this section—

“authorised person” means a person appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs to be an authorised person for the purposes of this section;

“ballot paper envelope” and “covering envelope” have the meanings specified in the Fourth Schedule (as substituted by this Act) of the Act of 1923.