LOCAL ELECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1926, Page 4

LOCAL ELECTIONS

BILL PASSED BY LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Several suggestions for variations of the present system, under which local elections are conducted were made in, the Legislative Council yesterday while the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Bill was under discussion. The Hon. R. Moore suggested that' power should be given to an attorney to vote_ on behalf of an absentee. The institution of compulsory voting was advocated by the Hon. C. J. Carringtoit, supported by Sir Frederick Lang. Tho Hon. M. Cohen thought that when a vacancy occurred on a local body the highest unsuccessful candidate a$ the previous election should be appointed, to save tho expense of a byelection. The question of privileges to habitual criminals was raised by the Hon. J. Barr, who thought there should be provision forbidding them to stand as candidates. In reply, the Leader of the Council (Sir Heaton Rhodes) said there would bo difficulties in the way of attorneys voting .for absentees, and ho. did not think'any local body would approvo of legislation giving such power. An absentee might be away from his home for a year or more, and it w#s quite possible that he would know nothing of the circumstances which necessitated the election or poll, and the attorney might vote in the direction not desired by the absentee. He pointed out that the privilege was not accorded to voters in Parliamentary elections. Sir Heaton said he did not think the principle was right. A voter should be on the spot, and be fully seized with the circumstances pertaining to the proposal. The question of compulsory voting had been threshed out very often in the House of Representatives. Personally, he would not like to be compelled to vote. He might not approve of any of the candidates, in which case he would havo no alternative but to strike out all the names. He was sorry he could not agree with the principle' of the first defeated candidate being returned to fill a vacancy. The conditions might have altered since the election. Very often the defeated candidates at an election - were "duds," and who would say that a "dud" should be appointed. He did not think the suggestion would receive the support of local authorities. There was a good deal of merit in the suggestion that habitual criminals should be debarred from recording their votes or from standing as candidates. In Committee on the Bill the Hon. E. W. Alison moved that no person who has been declared an habitual criminal should be entitled to have his name recorded on an electoral roll. The amendment was defeated by 18 votes to 12. The Bill was put through its final stages'and passed without amendment.