CO882-10 — Page 473

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

C.O. 882/10

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC.

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON |

Special register. ing officer and Advisory Board

for Burgher Electorate.

Registers of voters.

Appointment of revising officers.

Registers of

voters to be con- clusive evidence of right to vote.

General disquali.

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XXII-1) For the Burgher Electorate the Governor shall from time to time appoint a registering officer (styled the registering officer for the Burgher Electorate), who shall be resident at Colombo, and shall perform the duties of a registering officer for the Burgher Electorate with respect to all the electoral districts of such constitu- ency in the Island.

(2) The registering officer for the Burgher Electorate shall be assisted by a Board of not more than three persons nominated from time to time by the Governor, and holding office during the Governor's pleasure.

(3) It shall be the duty of such Board to advise and assist the registering officer in preparing the register of voters. The duties of the Board shall be advisory, and in the event of between the registering officer and the Board, the opinion of the difference any registering officer shall prevail.

XXIIL (1) For every electoral district separate registers of the persons entitled to vote for the election of members to represent the several constituencies hereinbefore specified shall be prepared and revised in the manner prescribed by the rules contained in Schedule I to this Order.

(2) If any register is not prepared in due time, the register in operation immediately before the time at which the new register ought to have been prepared shall continue in operation until the new register is prepared.

(3) A registering or revising officer may, on the consideration or hearing of any claim, objection or appeal, require that the evidence tendered by any person shall be given on oath or affirmation and may administer an oath or affirmation for this purpose; and any person who in the course of any such con- sideration or hearing knowingly swears or affirms anything material to the validity of such claim or objection which is false or incorrect shall be guilty of the offence of giving false evidence and shall be liable to the punishment provided therefor.

XXIV. (1) The Governor may from time to time appoint such persons as he may think fit to perform the duties of revising officers under the rules contained in Schedule I to this Order.

(2) The Governor shall assign to each such officer the electoral district or districts for which he shall be the revising officer.

XXV. The registers of voters for the time being in operation shall be conclusive evidence for the purpose of determining whether a person is or is not entitled to vote in an electoral district for the election of a member to represent the constituency to which such register relates.

XXVI. (1) No person shall be qualified to have his name fication of voters, entered on any register of voters in any year if such person :—~

(a) is not a British subject; or

(b) is a female; or

(c) is not of the age of 21 years; or

(d) is unable to read and write English, Sinhalese or Tamil; or

(e) has not, during the whole of a period of six months immediately prior to the commencement of the preparation of the register, resided in the electoral district to which the register relates; or

(f) has been sentenced in any part of His Majesty's Dominions to death or penal servitude, or to imprisonment for an offence punishable with hard labour or rigorous im- prisonment for a term exceeding twelve months, unless he shall have suffered the punishemnt to which he has been

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sentenced or such other punishment as by competent authority may be substituted for the same or shall have received a free pardon from His Majesty; or

(g) has been adjudged by a competent court to be of unsound mind; or

(A) does not have or hold one of the following quali- fications, viz. :—

i. The possession or enjoyment of a clear annual income of not less than Rs. 600, such possession or enjoy- ment having subsisted during the whole of a period of 6 months immediately prior to the commencement of the preparation of the register;

ii. The ownership of immovable property, either in his own right, or in right of his wife (but not as lessee or usufructuary mortgagee) situate within the elect- oral district to which the register relates during the whole of a period of 6 months immediately prior to the commencement of the preparation of the register, the value of which, after allowing for any mortgage debts thereon, is not less than Rs. 1,500;

iii. The occupation as owner or tenant during the whole of a period of 6 months immediately prior to the commencement of the preparation of the register, of any house, warehouse, counting-house, shop or other building (hereinafter referred to as qualifying property), situate within the electoral district to which the register relates, of the annual value of not less than

(a) Rs.400 if situated within the limits of any Municipal, Local Board or Sanitary Board town, or of any Urban District Council;

(b) Rs.200 if situated elsewhere:

Provided that the qualifying property need not be throughout the period of qualification the same property if the annual value is in no case less than Rs. 400 or Rs. 200, as the case may be, and if such property is in all cases situate within such area as aforesaid,

(2) The terms house, warehouse, counting-house, shop or other building" include any part of a building when that part is separately occupied for the purposes of any trade, business or profession; and any such part may, for the purpose of describing the qualification, be described as office, chambers, studio or by any like term applicable to the case.

of

(3) Where an occupier is entitled to the sole and exclusive use any part of a building, that part shall not be deemed to be occupied otherwise than separately by reason only that the occupier is entitled to the joint use of some other part.

(4) Residence in an electoral district or the occupation of a house shall not be deemed to be interrupted for the purposes of this article by reason only of permission being given for the occupation of the house as a furnished house by some other person on a monthly tenancy or on a tenancy at will, or on a lease for a period not exceed- ing five months in the whole, or by reason only of notice to quit being served and possession being demanded by the landlord of the house or by reason only of the fact that such residence has been interrupted by absence in the performance of any duty accruing from or incidental to any office, service or employment held or under- taken by any person otherwise qutulified to have his name entered on any register,

(5) The commencement of the preparation of the Register of Voters shall be deemed to be the date on which a notification is

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