THE ELECTION TIES.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 November 1925, Page 4

THE ELECTION TIES.

CASTING VOTES. POINTS FOR CRITICS. WELLINGTON, Nov. 111. The greater number of the opinions that have l>eeii given on the action ol the Returning Officers in the Lyttelton and the Westland elections have apparently been expressed without a knowledge of the facts. In the first, place il lias been taken for granted that a Returning Ollieer had, as an olecinr in the district, an ordinary vote as well as a casting vote in the event ol a tie. Such is not the case, lb* has no ordinary vote. The law is quite clear on ibis point, and on the eve ol the last election the Electoral Department specially wrote to all Returning Ollicers pointing out that they could not vote except in the event of a tie.

Another point on which many ol the critics go wrong is that the retiring member should lie tavoured. I here is no ■■retiring” member. The men who were liieinliers helore the expiration ot lli Parliament- were simply ordinary citizens al ihe election, with no special claims on the consideration ol the Returning Ollicers. As to the Parliameutarv custom, that is quite a dilleient thing. If Mr Speaker gives his casting vote in the event of a tie in lavour oMi coping tlie Government in office, he is simply giving it in lavour ol :<■_ Government that is at the moment in ollicc. hut. there is no such thing as a member ol (lie House ot Representatives at a General Election. An exmemher has no more right to consideration than a I resit candidate. Ine Speaker gives his vote ill favour ol a (iovernmenl. to secure the continuance of existing conditions. In tlie ca.-e "I a General Election, there arc m> "existing conditions" to he continued. Ihe Ret timing Officer, tnercforc, has a perfect right to give his only vote (the casting vote) as lie would have given his original vote had he been an ordinary elector. A f 11 II IST f lIURCH COM M ENT. The Christchurch "Press" says ties at general elections have boon so extreme!.- rate that custom and precedent cannot h,, pleaded; and it is useless to look 1 n guidance to the practice in ..A.. 1 jnadi'e. When the Speaker. ■- ’< k (!<*> i lijM'l U> L'.iv't* lll'' ( JLSI i HJI-V'M 1‘ in I hr- lI,HIM.'. s fur tlio (ioviTiiinoist, or for or against a clause or amendment 111 a Rill, he is 1101. as is niistnh-'iil,\ supposed by some people, voting "for the maintenance cl ihe status quo (alt hough that is the elfeel of his vole), hut merely lor Ihe keeping open el the question for further consideration. |low can this possibly apply in *^ l ' case of the Lyttelton ami Westland elect ions h The returning officer’s vote does not keep the question open; il settles the question once lor all so far as he is concerned. And there is no "status quo" lor him to consider. Each. Parliament stands b.v itsell. Il is elected. It runs its course, ami when il expires il i- done with. No private member of a Parliament has any vest I’.'C of coot inning right or stains when" his term of c’lli.-e as a member expires, lie heroines merely an elector like the rest ol os. and is no longer a 1 iv pari ol any "-lain- time 'I 1 re 1 11 i'ii ing oilier r in Westland had 'otoo for Air O’Brien only because Iw imagined that it was his duty in leave the rcproscnlal ion of Westland uu- , hanged, lie would have been guilty ot n fault. IV.r it was not Ids Imsitte.— to remember who represented Westland in the last Parliament.