In order to remove any misinterpretation/misunderstanding of the text contained in the GECOM Elections Corner relating to Voting by Proxy (published last weekend), please note the following.
According to Section 30 of the Representation of the People Act Cap. 1:03:
(1) The following electors shall be entitled to vote by proxy at an election –
Those unable or likely to be unable, to go in person to the pooling place, at which they are entitled to vote, for any of the following reasons –
the particular circumstances of that person’s employment on the election day either as a member of a disciplined force, or as a rural constable, or for a purpose connected with the election, by a returning officer;
the fact that at the election that person is acting as returning officer for a district other than the district in which his address as entered in the official list of electors is situate;
the particular circumstances of that person’s employment on the election day by the returning officer for a district, other than the district in which his address as entered in the official list of electors is situate, for a purpose connected with the election in that district;
the fact that that person is an employee of the Transport and Harbours Department engaged in running a vessel on the election day;
a candidate at the election, where he is unable or unlikely to be unable, to go in person to the polling place at which he is entitled to vote, by reason of being engaged in any activity connected with the election in a district other than the district in which that polling place is situate;
those unable or likely to be unable, by reason either of blindness or any other physical incapacity, to go in person to the pooling place or, if able to go, to vote unaided.
(2) Not more than one person shall be appointed to vote as a proxy on behalf of any one elector.
(3) No person shall be appointed to vote as a proxy –
(a) on behalf of another elector unless he is himself an elector who is entitled to vote at the same polling place as that at which the elector on whose behalf his appointment is sought is entitled to vote;
(b) for more than two electors.
(4) An elector voting as a proxy on behalf of another elector so shall do at the same polling place and at that same time as he votes on his own behalf.
It is the right of every eligible elector to go out on May 11, 2015 and vote as early as possible. All of GECOM’s Polling Stations throughout the country will be open from 06:00h to 18:00h.
