SOLDIERS' VOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 119, 5 February 1940, Page 6

SOLDIERS' VOTES

IN GENERAL ELECTIONS

PROVISION IN STATUTE

The procedure that exists to tin- i able New Zealanders on active service to record their votes in a General Election, should one occur during their absence from the Dominion, is the subject of a question by a correspondent of a contemporary. He asks: "In the event of an election, what arrangements, if any, have been made to record the votes of New Zealanders on active service? What was done in this direction during the last war? Earlin the last war provision was made to meet this contingency by the passing, during the 1914 session, of the Expeditionary Forces Voting Act, which remains in force. This measure ensures that every member of the Expeditionary Forces shall have an opportunity of voting. Instead of voting for an individual candidate, however, the soldier-vot-er can vote only for party. Every vote, according to the Act. shall be counted as a vote for the candidate who has been selected as the candidate representing that party in the electoral district in which the voter resided .immediately before joining the armed forces. The selection in the case of the Government Party is made by the Prime Minister and in the case of the Opposition 1))' the Leader of the Opposition. If there is no candidate selected as representing the party for which the vote may be given, the vote does not count. Provision is also included in the Act for voting on the licensing issue, and another Act facilitates the voting of Maori members of overseas forces.