SOLDIERS' VOTES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 14, 11 October 1919, Page 6

SOLDIERS' VOTES

EXPEDITIONARY FORCES VOTING BILL. The object of the Expeditionary Force* Voting Mill, .'circulated yesterilay, is slated.to be "to insure that; all member* of'the Expeditionary Forces who may bo in New Zealand at the dale of. the' next general election shall be entitled to vote at that election and at the licensing poll to be held siroultaneousy, notwithstanding that they may not have been registered' as electors under the Legislators Act, 1(108." The Bill 1 applies only to members of an Expeditionary Force who 'have' been beyond the seas and have rot been discharged before August 31, 191.9. It is assumed that all .members discharged prior to that date will be duly enrolled as electors. The Bill proscribes the method by which tho votes are to bo. taken, the procedure being similar -to that provided by regulation for the special licensing poll held in April last. The Iw'o principal points in the measure additional to tho arrangements made for that poll are tiliat "do person who has serred beyond the' seas as a. member of an Expeditionary Force shall be disqtinlified from voting or ■ from being registered as art elector on the ground that he has not attained the age of twenty-one veal's," and that tho provisions of the Bill with pceessary_ modifications shall apply to any election of a member of' Parliament held within six months after the next general election, this providing for possible by-elections within that period.