Office of Public Sector Information

Treating

80.—(1) A person shall be guilty of a corrupt practice if he is guilty of treating.

(2) A person shall be guilty of treating if he corruptly, by himself or by any other person, either before, during or after an Assembly election, directly or indirectly gives or provides, or pays wholly or in part the expense of giving or providing, any meat, drink, entertainment or provision to or for any person—

(a) for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to vote or refrain from voting; or

(b) on account of that person or any other person having voted or refrained from voting, or being about to vote or refrain from voting.

(3) Every elector or his proxy who corruptly accepts or takes any such meat, drink, entertainment or provision shall also be guilty of treating.

Undue influence

81.—(1) A person shall be guilty of a corrupt practice if he is guilty of undue influence.

(2) A person shall be guilty of undue influence—

(a) if he, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence or restraint, or inflicts or threatens to inflict, by himself or by any other person, any temporal or spiritual injury, damage, harm or loss upon or against any person in order to induce or compel that person to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of that person having voted or refrained from voting; or

(b) if, by abduction, duress or any fraudulent device or contrivance, he impedes or prevents, or intends to impede or prevent, the free exercise of the franchise of an elector or proxy for an elector, or so compels, induces or prevails upon, or intends so to compel, induce or prevail upon, an elector or proxy for an elector either to vote or to refrain from voting.

Rights of creditors

82.  The provisions of this Part prohibiting—

(a) payments and contracts for payments;

(b) the payment or incurring of election expenses in excess of the maximum amount allowed by this Order; or

(c) the incurring of expenses not authorised by an election agent,

do not affect the right of any creditor who, when the contract was made or the expense was incurred, was ignorant of that contract or expense being in contravention of this Order.

Savings as to Assembly elections

83.—(1) Where a person has been declared by others to be a candidate at an Assembly election without his consent, nothing in this Part shall be construed to impose any liability on that person, unless he has afterwards given his assent to the declaration or has been nominated.

(2) Nothing in this Part makes it illegal for an employer to permit electors at Assembly elections or their proxies to absent themselves from his employment for a reasonable time for the purpose of voting at the poll at an Assembly election without having any deduction from their salaries or wage on account of their absence, if the permission—

(a) is (so far as practicable without injury to the employer’s business) given equally to all persons alike who are at the time in his employment;

(b) is not given with a view to inducing any person to give his vote in a particular way at the election; and

(c) is not refused to any person for the purpose of preventing him from giving his vote in a particular way at the election,

but this paragraph shall not be construed as making illegal any act which would not be illegal apart from this paragraph.

Interpretation of Part 3

84.—(1) In this Part, except where the context otherwise requires—

“candidate” shall be construed in accordance with paragraph (2);

“date of the allowance of an authorised excuse” has the meaning given by article 58(9);

“disputed claim” has the meaning given by article 50(1) as extended by article 51;

“money” and “pecuniary reward” shall (except in articles 41, 79 and 80 and Schedule 6) be deemed to include—

and expressions referring to money shall be construed accordingly;

“payment” includes any pecuniary or other reward;

“personal expenses” as used with respect to the expenditure of any candidate in relation to any Assembly election includes the reasonable travelling expenses of the candidate, and the reasonable expenses of his living at hotels or elsewhere for the purposes of and in relation to the election; and

“return as to election expenses” means a return (including the bills and receipts to be delivered with it) to be made under article 52(1).

(2) A person becomes a “candidate” in relation to—

(a) the 2007 Assembly general election—

(i) on the last day for publication of notice of the election if on or before that day he is declared by himself or by others to be a candidate at the election; and

(ii) otherwise, on the day on which he is so declared by himself or by others or on which he is nominated as a candidate at the election (whichever is the earlier); and

(b) in relation to any subsequent Assembly election—

(i) on the date—

(aa) of the dissolution of the Assembly; or

(bb) in the case of an election to fill a casual vacancy, of the occurrence of the vacancy if on or before that date he is declared by himself or others to be a candidate at the election; and

(ii) otherwise, on the day on which he is so declared by himself or others or on which he is nominated as a candidate at the election (whichever is the earlier).

Computation of time for purposes of Part 3

85.—(1) Where the day or last day on which anything is required or permitted to be done by or in pursuance of this Part is any of the days mentioned in paragraph (2)—

(a) the requirement or permission shall be deemed to relate to the first day thereafter which is not one of those days; and

(b) in computing any period of not more than seven days for the purposes of this Part any of the days so mentioned shall be disregarded.

(2) The days referred to in paragraph (1) are—

(a) a Saturday or a Sunday;

(b) Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or Good Friday;

(c) a day which is a bank holiday in Wales under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(47); or

(d) a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.