Northern Territory Electoral Regulations 1947 (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1956. No. 74.

REGULATIONS UNDER THE NORTHERN TERRITORY REPRESENTATION ACT 1922-1949, THE NORTHERN TERRITORY (ADMINISTRATION) ACT 1910-1955 AND THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL ACT 1918-1953.*

I, THE ADMINISTRATOR of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the Northern Territory Representation Act 1922-1949, the Northern Territory (Administration) Act 1910-1955 and the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918-1953.

Dated this seventeenth day of October, 1956.

J. Northcott

Administrator.

By His Excellency’s Command,

Minister of State for the Interior.

 

Amendments of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations. 

Interpretation.

1. Regulation 4 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by inserting in sub-regulation (1.), before the definition of “District”, the following definition:—

“‘Assistant Returning Officer’ means an Assistant Returning Officer for a District appointed under paragraph (a) of sub-regulation (1.) of regulation 6 of these Regulations;”.

2.Regulation 6 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Assistant Returning Officers.

“6.—(1.) The Chief Electoral Officer may appoint a person to be an Assistant Returning Officer—

(a) for a District; or

(b) at a place outside Australia.

“(2.) A person appointed to be an Assistant Returning Officer for a District may, subject to the control of the Returning Officer, perform the functions and exercise the powers of the Returning Officer in, or in relation to, the District.

“(3.) A person appointed to be an Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia may, subject to the control of the Chief Electoral Officer, perform such functions and exercise such powers as are conferred on an Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia by these Regulations or by the Commonwealth Electoral Act in its application to the Territory.

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on  , 1956.

  Statutory Rules 1947, No. 148, as amended by Statutory Rules 1949, No. 61.

4873/56.—Price 5d. 9/12.9.1956.

 

“(4.) Where an Assistant Returning Officer is appointed for the purposes of an election only, the appointment terminates upon completion of the election.”.

Appointment in case of vacancy.

3. Regulation 8 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by omitting from sub-regulation (1.) the words “Assistant Returning Officer” and inserting in their stead the words “Assistant Returning Officer for a District, Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”.

Date from which appointments take effect.

4. Regulation 9 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by omitting the words “Assistant Returning Officer,” and inserting in their stead the words “Assistant Returning Officer for a District, Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”.

Postal votes issued pursuant to applications.

5. Regulation 88 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended—

(a)by adding at the end of sub-regulation (1.) the words “, or, if the elector is temporarily outside Australia, to an Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”;

(b)by omitting from sub-regulation (2.) the words “Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officer, Commonwealth Electoral Officer or Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory, as the case requires,” and inserting in their stead the words “officer to whom, in accordance with the last preceding sub-regulation, it is made”; and

(c) by omitting from sub-regulation (3.) the words “the Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officer, Commonwealth Electoral Officer or Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory, as the case requires,” and inserting in their stead the words “duly made in accordance with the preceding sub-regulations of this regulation, the officer to whom the application is so made,”.

Applications to be numbered and dealt with.

6. Regulation 89 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended—

(a) by omitting from sub-regulation (2.) the words “or the Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory” (first occurring) and inserting in their stead the words “, the Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory or an Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”; and

(b) by omitting from sub-regulation (2.) the words “the Commonwealth Electoral Officer or the Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory” and inserting in their stead the word “he”.

Certificates to be numbered to correspond with applications.

7. Regulation 90 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by omitting the words “Assistant Returning Officer” and inserting in their stead the words “Assistant Returning Officer for a District, Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”.

 

Postal ballot-papers.

8. Regulation 93 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by omitting from sub-regulation (3.) the words “Assistant Returning Officer” and inserting in their stead the words “Assistant Returning Officer for a District, Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”.

Postal vote papers to be delivered or sent to applicant.

9. Regulation 94 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by omitting the words “Assistant Returning Officer” and inserting in their stead the words “Assistant Returning Officer for a District, Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”.

Authorized witnesses.

10. Regulation 96 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by omitting paragraph (b) of sub-regulation (1.) and inserting in its stead the following paragraph :—

“(b) Where the vote is recorded outside Australia—

(i) an officer of the naval, military or air forces of the Commonwealth or of some other part of the Queen’s dominions;

(ii) a person employed in the Public Service of the Commonwealth, a Territory of the Commonwealth or a part of the Queen’s dominions; and

(iii) a Justice of the Peace for, or a minister of religion or medical practitioner resident in, a Territory of the Commonwealth or a part of the Queen’s dominions.”.

Scrutiny of votes in Council elections.

11. Regulation 120 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

“120.—(1.) Where, in any District, one member of the Council is to be elected, the result of the election shall be determined by scrutiny in the following manner:—

(a) The Returning Officer shall ascertain the total number of first preference votes given for each candidate.

(b) The candidate who has received the largest number of first preference votes shall, if that number constitutes an absolute majority of votes, be elected.

(c) If no candidate has received an absolute majority of votes, a second count shall be made.

(d) On the second count the sealed parcels of ballot-papers may be opened by the Returning Officer. The candidate who has received the fewest first preference votes shall be excluded and each ballot-paper counted to him shall be counted to the candidate next in the order of the voter’s preference.

(e) If a candidate then has an absolute majority of votes he shall be elected, but if no candidate then has an absolute majority of votes, the process of excluding the candidate who has the fewest votes and counting each of his ballot-papers to the unexcluded candidate next in order of the voter’s preference shall be repeated until one candidate has received an absolute majority of votes.

(f) The candidate who has received an absolute majority of votes shall be elected.

 

(g) If, on any count, two or more candidates have an equal number of votes and one of them has to be excluded, the Returning Officer shall decide which shall be excluded. If, in the final count, two candidates have an equal number of votes, the Returning Officer shall decide by his casting vote which shall be elected.

“(2.) Where, in any District, two members of the Council are to be elected, the provisions of section one hundred and thirty-five of the Commonwealth Electoral Act are, for the purposes of determining the result of that election, modified to the extent that they are inconsistent with the following provisions:—

(a) The Returning Officer shall ascertain the total number of first preference votes given for each candidate.

(b) The Returning Officer shall determine a quota by dividing the total number of first preference votes by the number three and by increasing the quotient so obtained (disregarding any remainder) by one.

(c) Any candidate who has received a number of first preference votes equal to or greater than the quota so determined shall be elected.

(d) If, after the count of the first preference votes, one candidate only has been elected, the Returning Officer shall transfer the surplus votes (that is, any number in excess of the quota) of the elected candidate to the continuing candidates, in proportion to the voters’ preferences as follows:—

(i) The number of the elected candidate’s surplus votes shall be divided by the number of first preference votes received by him and the resulting fraction shall, for the purposes of this paragraph, be the transfer value of the surplus votes.

(ii) The whole of the ballot-papers of the elected candidate shall be rearranged, according to the next available preference indicated thereon, in separate parcels for the continuing candidates.

(iii) The Returning Officer shall determine the number of votes to be transferred from the elected candidate to a continuing candidate by multiplying the total number of ballot-papers of the elected candidate which bear the next available preference for that continuing candidate by the transfer value of the elected candidate’s surplus votes. If, as a result of the multiplication, any fraction results, so many of those fractions taken in the order of their magnitude, beginning with the largest, as are necessary to ensure that the number of votes transferred equals the number of the elected candidate’s surplus votes shall be reckoned as of the value of unity and the remaining fractions shall be ignored.

 

(iv) The Returning Officer shall then, in respect of each continuing candidate, forthwith take at random, from the parcel containing the ballot-papers of the elected candidate which bear the next available preference for that continuing candidate, a number of ballot-papers equal to the number of votes to be transferred determined in accordance with the last preceding sub-paragraph, and transfer those ballot-papers to the continuing candidate.

(v) When the surplus votes of the elected candidate have been transferred to the continuing candidates as provided in this paragraph, the continuing candidate who has received a majority of votes shall be elected.

(e) If, after the count of the first preference votes, no candidate has been elected, the candidate who has the fewest votes shall be excluded and the whole of his ballot-papers shall be transferred to the continuing candidates next in order of the voters’ available preferences.

(f) If, thereupon, or as the result of the exclusion of a candidate at any subsequent stage of the scrutiny, a continuing candidate has received a number of votes equal to or greater than the quota, that continuing candidate shall be elected. If one continuing candidate only has been elected, the surplus votes of the elected candidate shall be transferred to the continuing candidates in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (d) of these provisions but, in the application of those provisions, only those ballot-papers which have been transferred to the elected candidate from the candidate last excluded shall be taken into consideration. When the surplus votes of the elected candidate have been transferred to the continuing candidates, the continuing candidate who has received a majority of votes shall be elected. If no continuing candidate has received a number of votes equal to the quota, the process of excluding the candidate with the fewest votes and the transferring of ballot-papers containing those votes to the continuing candidates shall be repeated until a continuing candidate has received a number of votes equal to the quota.

(g) If, on any count, two or more candidates have an equal number of votes and one of them has to be excluded, the Returning Officer shall decide which shall be excluded. If, in the final count for filling the second vacancy, two candidates have an equal number of votes, the Returning Officer shall decide by his casting vote which shall be elected.

“(3.) Except as provided in paragraph (g) of sub-regulation (1.) of this regulation, or in paragraph (g) of the provisions set out in the last preceding sub-regulation, the Returning Officer shall not vote at an election.”.

 

Undertaking by officers and scrutineers.

12. Regulation 127 of the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by omitting from sub-regulation (1.) the words “Assistant Returning Officer” and inserting in their stead the words “Assistant Returning Officer for a District, Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”.

Form 23.

13. Form 23 in the First Schedule to the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended—

(a) by adding at the end of the first paragraph the words “, or, if the applicant is temporarily outside Australia, to an Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”;

(b) by omitting the words—

“An elector whose name appears on the Roll for the Northern Territory, for a State, or for the Australian Capital Territory (or where the applicant is outside Australia—an Officer of the Naval, Military or Air Forces of the Commonwealth or other part of the King’s dominions or a person employed in the Public Service of the Commonwealth or of a Territory of the Commonwealth.”

and inserting in their stead the words—

“An elector whose name appears on the Roll of the Northern Territory, for a State or for the Australian Capital Territory (or, where the applicant is outside Australia, an officer of the Naval, Military or Air Forces of the Commonwealth or of some other part of the Queen’s dominions, a person employed in the Public Service of the Commonwealth, a Territory of the Commonwealth or a part of the Queen’s dominions or a Justice of the Peace for, or a minister of religion or medical practitioner resident in, a Territory of the Commonwealth or a part of the Queen’s dominions).” ;

(c) by omitting the words—

“* If the application is being made to the Assistant Returning Officer for the District for which the Applicant is enrolled or to the Commonwealth Electoral Officer for a State or to the Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory, the application should be altered accordingly.”

and inserting in their stead the words—

“* If the application is being made to the Assistant Returning Officer for the District for which the applicant is enrolled or to an Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia or to the Commonwealth Electoral Officer for a State or to the Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory the application should be altered accordingly.”; and

(d) by omitting the words “Assistant Returning Officer” (last occurring) and inserting in their stead the words “Assistant Returning Officer for a District, Assistant Returning Officer at a place outside Australia”.

Form 24.

14. Form 24 in the First Schedule to the Northern Territory Electoral Regulations is amended by inserting after the words “Returning Officer for the Australian Capital Territory” the words “or Assistant Returning Officer at”  .”.

 

By Authority: A. J. Arthur, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.