1955-HKRS28-8-22_Part02 — Page 8

Incapacity

of candidate reported

guilty of illegal practice.

Report

exonera-

ting candidate

in certain cases of corrupt and illegal practice by agente.

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(b) without due authority supply a ballot paper to any

person; or

(c) fraudulently put into a ballot box any paper other than the ballot paper which he is authorized by law to put in;

or

(d) fraudulently take out of the polling station any ballot

paper; or

(e) without due authority destroy, take, open or otherwise interfere with any ballot box or packet of ballot papers then in use for the purposes of an election; or

() fraudulently or without due authority, as the case may

be, attempt to do any of the foregoing acts.

24. Where upon the hearing of an election petition it is found by the certificate or report of the Court made in pursuance of the relevant Ordinance that any illegal practice has been proved to have been committed in reference to the election questioned by such petition by or with the knowledge and consent of any can- didate at such election, the candidate shall be incapable of being elected to or holding office as a member, officer or servant of the body in respect of which the election was held during a period of three years from the date of the report.

PART IV.

Excuse and exemption for corrupt or illegal pactice.

25, Where, upon the trial of an election petition, the Court reports that a candidate at the election questioned by the petition has been guilty by his agents of a corrupt practice or of an illegal practice, in relation to such election, and the Court further reports that the candidate has proved to the Court-

(a) that no corrupt or illegal practice was committed at such election by the candidate or with his knowledge and

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consent, and the offences mentioned in the said report were committed without the sanction or connivance of such candidate; and

(b) that all reasonable mears for preventing the commission of corrupt or illegal practices at such election were taken by and on behalf of the candidate; and

(c) that the offences mentioned in the said report were of a

trivial, unimportant and limited character; and

(d) that in all other respects the election was free from any corrupt or illegal practice on the part of the candidate and of his agents;

then the election of such candidate shall not, by reason of the offences mentioned in such report, be void, nor shall the can- didate be subject to any incapacity under this Ordinance or any other enactment.

26. Where, on application made by a candidate at an election, it is shown to the Court by such evidence as seems to the Court sufficient-

(a) that any act or omission of such candidate or of any agent or other person, would, by reason of being in contraven- tion of any of the provisions of this Ordinance, be, but for this section, an illegal practice; and

(b) that such act or omission arose from inadvertence or from accidental miscalculation or from some other reasonable cause of a like nature, and in any case did not arise from want of good faith; and

(c) that such notice (if any) of the application has been given

in the Colony as to the Court seems fit; and

(d) that in the circumstances it seems to the Court to be just that the said candidate, agent and person, or any of them, should not be subject to any of the consequences under this Ordinance of the said act or omission;

the Court may make an order allowing such act or omission to be an exception from the provisions of this Ordinance which would otherwise make the same an illegal practice, and thereupon such

Power of Court to

except innocent act from being

legal practices.