DUNEDIN ELECTION PETITION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9352, 22 January 1909, Page 5

DUNEDIN ELECTION PETITION.

Press Association. —- Dunedin,. January 21. This morning in the Supreme Court the petition and objections of A. R. Barclay and G. M. Thomson respectively, concerning the Dunedin North .election, were lodged. Mr Barclay’s petition, after citing that the Returning Officer is alleged to have improperly allowed or disallowed votes, tables his reasons as under

(1) Two voters were aliens and were not British subjects when enrolled, and were not entitled to be enrolled; (2) t- even voters are disqualified from voting; (3) three a'oieut voters’ votes should be disqualified according to law; (4) one other vot; should be treated as informal.

The respondent’s objections may be sumrasr’sed as under: —

(1) The six votes mentioned in petiton were properly disallowed by the Returning Officer; (3) iu addition to the votes allowed to Mr Thomsen at the election, he should have received two votes given for him under number 2230, which votes were improperly disallowed by the Returning Officer on the alleged ground that one person had voted in two different polling places, whereas two different persons had voted, for him in two different polling places; (3) the vote of the absent voter recorded in his favour as mentioned in the petition was rightly recorded; (4) it was not correct as alleged in the petition that some ballot papers rejected as informal were valid votes recorded in favour of the petitioner, but some of the ballot papers were valid votes given for the respondent; (5) on the above grounds, and because petitioner should have been disallowed all votes objected to by respondent, the respondent says that the petitioner would not have received a majority of the valid votes recorded; (6) a general recount of votes could not now be made as seventeen of the ballot papers used at the election, and oontaining‘votes given and recorded in respondent’s favour had been abstracted from the custody of the Returning Officer and could not be found.